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THE 
FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE 


BY 
ANDREW  I).  WIIJTE 


REPRINTED  FROM 
DR.  WHITES  AUTOBIOGRAPHY 


BOSTON 

THE  WORLD  PEACE  FOUNDATION 

1912 


COPYRIGHT,  1905,  15V  THE   CENTURY  COMPANY 


CD 


^ 


^  PREFACE 

\  The  meeting  of  tlie  first  Peace  Conference  at  The 
^^  Hague,  on  the  18th  of  ^lay,  1899,  marked  the  opening 
^  of  a  new  era  in  human  liistory.    In  tlic  world's  great 

V  peace  movement  it  was  an  event  of  such  cardinal  sig- 
nificance  that   the   })eace   workers   in   all   nations   have 

V  come  ]jy  common  consent  to  make  the  anniversary  their 
J  chief  day  for  the  annual  celebration  and  pid)li(;  presen- 
H  tation  of  their  cause.    The  first  Hague  Conference  was 

in  germ  the  true  Parliament  of  Man.    Tlie  dream  of  the 
^  prophets  and  the  song  of  the  poets  here  found  their  first 
^  partial  realization  in  plain   prose.     Only  twenty-six  of 
"^  the  fifty-nine  governments  claiming  independent  sover- 
^  eignty  in  1899  were  represented  at  the  Conference ;  but 
^  so  profound  was  the  influence  of  the  Conference,  and 
so   clearly   was   it    recognized    that    it  represented  the 
^  world's  vitality  and  commanded  its  future,  that  at  the 
second  Conference,  in  1907,  forty-four  governments  sent 
^lelegates,  representing  practically  the  whole  world.   The 
second  Conference  made  definite  provision  in  its  final 
<;^act  for  the  meeting  of  a  third  Conference  after  substan- 
^  tially  the  same  interval  as  that  between  the  first  and 
second   Conferences ;    and   this   means   a   fourth   and   a 
fifth  —  it  means  that  the  Conferences  will  be  regular; 
and  that  in  the  lifetime  of  men  now  upon  the  stage  the 
International  Congress,  composed  of  the  official  repre- 
sentatives of  all  nations,  will  assemble  at  stated  times 


231687 


iv  THE   FIRST   IIACiUK  CONFKUEXCE 

to  coufer  upon  the  mutual  interests  of  the  nations,  as 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States  meets  regukirly  to 
confer  upon  the  mutual  interests  of  the  states  in  the 
Union.  This  is  what  was  involved  in  the  memorable 
meetincr  of  the  First  Hacpue  Conference  in  1899. 

To  the  history  of  this  unique  event  the  journal  of 
Andrew  D.  White,  which,  by  the  kind  consent  of  The 
Century  Company,  is  reprinted  in  the  present  volume 
from  his  Autobiography,  bears  a  unique  relation.  j\Ir. 
White  was  the  head  of  our  American  delegation  ;  and 
his  careful  journal,  covering  the  whole  period  of  the 
Conference,  is  the  only  similar  record  which  has  been 
published  by  any  of  the  participants.  It  thus  has  'a 
value  as  an  original  historical  document  not  unlike  in 
some  respects  that  of  Madison's  journal  in  relation  to 
our  Constitutional  Convention  of  1787;  and  it  has  the 
additional  value  and  charm  of  communicating  the  im- 
pression of  the  general  social  atmosphere  and  environ- 
ment of  the  Conference.  It  will  thus  have  a  high  and 
abiding  interest  in  international  history,  and  its  publi- 
cation in  the  present  form  will  certainly  find  a  wide  and 
warm  welcome. 

Mr.  White's  own  distinguished  services  at  the  First 
Hague  Conference  are  so  well  known  as  to  require  no 
notice  here.  His  part  in  the  effort  for  the  estal)lishment 
of  the  Permanent  Court  of  Arbitration,  the  greatest 
achievement  of  the  Conference,  was  preeminent,  second 
only  to  that  of  Sir  Julian  Pauncefote  ;  he  made  the  most 
important  speecli  in  tlie  Conference  in  l)eliaU"  of  tlie  im- 
munity of  private  property  from  capture  in  maritime 
warfare ;  and  he  stood  stanchly  and  influentially  for 
every  great  constructive  measure  of  the  Conference.    He 


PREFACE  V 

worked  no  less  earnestly  in  behalf  of  the  measures  aim- 
inar  to  mitigate  the  inhumanities  of  war.  The  United 
States  has  been  reproached  by  humane  international 
men  for  its  opposition  in  the  Hague  Conferences  to 
the  prohibition  of  asphyxiating  bombs  in  war,  an  oppo- 
sition in  wliich  at  the  Second  Hague  Conference  it  stood 
alone.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  action  of  the 
United  States  delegation  at  the  first  Conference  was 
against  the  protest  of  "Sir.  White,  the  leader  of  the 
delegation.  In  no  way,  perhaps,  did  Mr.  White  render 
a  greater  service  at  The  Hague  than  in  the  part  he  took 
in  securing  the  adherence  of  Germany  to  the  [)lan  for 
the  Permanent  Court  of  Arbitration  ;  and  the  pages  of 
his  journal  devoted  to  this  matter,  including  the  full 
text  of  his  letter  to  Baron  von  lUilow,  will  always 
possess  a  peculiar  interest. 

The  history  of  the  First  Peace  Conference  at  Tlie 
Hague  has  been  written  by  Frederick  W.  Holls,  the 
secretary  of  the  American  delegation.  This  work  was 
published  in  1900,  the  year  following  the  Conference. 
Soon  after  the  second  Conference  Dr.  James  Brown 
Scott,  technical  delegate  of  the  United  States  to  the 
second  Conference  and  therefore  standmg  in  a  similar 
relation  to  the  American  delegation  at  that  Conference 
to  that  in  which  Mr.  Holls  stood  to  the  American  delega- 
tion at  the  first  Conference,  published  his  exhaustive  and 
valuable  work,  "The  Hague  Peace  Conferences  of  1899 
and  1907."  The  American  addresses  at  the  Second 
Hague  Conference  have  been  gathered  into  a  special 
volume  by  Dr.  Scott,  with  prefatory  surveys  of  the 
work  of  the  second  Conference  by  himself  and  by  Hon. 
.Joseph  H.  Choate  and  General  Horace  Porter  of   the 


vi  THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

American  delegation  at  the  second  Conference.  There 
is  also  an  admirable  volume  upon  "'  The  Two  Hague 
Conferences "  by  Professor  William  I.  Hull,  who  was 
present  at  The  Hague  in  a  journalistic  capacity  during 
the  time  of  the  second  Conference  in  1907,  and  whose 
book  appeared  the  following  year.  In  all  of  these  vol- 
umes will  be  found  the  record  of  Mr.  White's  part 
in  the  first  Conference,  with  reports  especially  of  his 
address  upon  the  exemption  of  private  property  from 
capture  at  sea  in  time  of  war,  the  report  in  Mr.  Holls's 
history  being  complete.  Mr.  Holls  also  gives  the  full 
text  of  the  address  by  ]\Ir.  White  in  honor  of  Hugo 
Grotius,  in  the  Great  Church  of  Delft,  on  July  4,  1899, 
when,  in  the  presence  of  all  the  members  of  the  Peace 
Conference,  the  Dutch  Government  and  the  diplomatic 
corps  accredited  to  The  Hague,  and  other  distinguished 
visitors,  he  laid  upon  the  tomb  of  Grotius  a  silver 
wreath  hi  bclialf  of  the  government  and  people  of  the 
United  States. 

Tliere  are  of  course  various  valuable  European  works 
upon  the  Hague  Conferences,  but  reference  is  made 
here  simply  to  the  American  works  which  are  easily 
available,  and  which  together  furnisli  our  people  with 
a  complete  record  of  the  great  work  in  which  Mr.  White 
was  so  conspicuous  a  figure.  But  among  all  the  works 
relating  to  the  first  Conference,  no  other  can  ever  possess 
the  peculiar  interest  or  make  the  strong  personal  appeal 
of  Mr.  White's  journal,  the  careful  preparation  of  which 
during  the  very  course  of  the  Conference  was  one  of  the 
most  fortunate  incidents  of  modern  international  history. 

E.  D.  M. 


THE  FIEST  HAGUE   CONFEKENCE 


Ox  the  24th  of  August,  1898,  the  Russian  Government 
proposed,  in  the  name  of  the  Emperor  Nicholas  II, 
a  conference  which  should  seek  to  arrest  the  constantly 
increasing  development  of  armaments  and  thus  contribute 
to  a  durable  peace;  and  on  the  Itth  of  January,  1899, 
his  minister  of  foreign  affairs,  Count  ^luravieff,  having 
received  favorable  answers  to  this  proposal,  sent  forth  a 
circular  indicating  the  Russian  view  as  to  subjects  of  dis- 
cussion. As  to  the  place  of  meeting,  there  were  obvious 
reasons  why  it  should  not  be  the  capital  of  one  of  the 
greater  powers.  As  to  Switzerland,  the  number  of  an- 
archists and  nihilists  wh©  had  taken  refuge  there,  and 
the  murder  of  the  Empress  of  Austria  by  one  of  them 
shortly  before,  at  Geneva,  in  broad  daylight,  had  thrown 
discredit  over  the  ability  of  the  Swiss  Government  to 
o-uarantee  safetv  to  the  conference  ;  the  Russian  Govern- 
ment  therefore  proposed  that  its  sessions  be  held  at  The 
Hague,  and,  this  being  agreed  to,  the  opening  was  fixed 
for  the  18tli  of  :\Iay. 

From  the  first  there  was  a  misunderstanding  through- 
out the  world  as  to  what  the  Emperor  Nicholas  really 
proposed.  Far  and  near  it  was  taken  for  granted  that  he 
desired  a  general  disarmament,  and  this  legend  spread 

1 


2  THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

rapidly.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  tins  was  neither  his  pro- 
posal nor  his  purpose ;  the  measures  he  suggested  being 
designed  "  to  put  an  end  to  the  eonstantly  increasing 
development  of  armaments." 

At  the  outset  I  was  skeptical  as  to  the  whole  matter. 
What  I  had  seen  of  the  Emperor  Nicholas  during  my 
stay  in  Russia  had  not  encouraged  me  to  expect  that  he 
would  have  the  breadth  of  view  or  the  strength  of  pur- 
pose to  carry  out  the  vast  reforms  which  thinking  men 
lioped  for.  I  recalled  our  conversation  at  my  reception 
as  minister,  when,  to  my  amazement,  he  showed  himself 
entirely  ignorant  of  the  starving  condition  of  the  peas- 
antry throughout  large  districts  in  the  very  heart  of  the 
empire.  That  he  was  a  kindly  man,  wishing  in  a  languid 
way  the  good  of  his  country,  could  not  be  doubted ;  but 
the  indifference  to  everything  about  him  evident  in  all  his 
actions,  his  lack  of  force  even  in  the  simplest  efforts  for 
the  improvement  of  his  people,  and,  above  all,  his  yield- 
ing to  the  worst  elements  in  his  treatment  of  the  Baltic 
provinces  and  Finland,  did  not  encourage  me  to  believe 
that  he  would  lead  a  movement  against  the  enormous 
power  of  the  military  party  in  his  vast  emph-e.  On  this 
account,  when  tlie  American  newspapers  prophesied  that  I 
was  to  be  one  of  the  delegates,  my  feelings  were  strongly 
against  accei)ting  any  such  post.  But  in  due  time  the 
tender  of  it  came  in  a  way  very  different  from  anything  I 
had  anticipated:  President  Mclviii ley  cabled  a  personal 
request  that  1  acc(?pt  a  position  on  the  delegation,  and 
private  letters  from  very  dear  friends,  in  whose  good 
judgment  I  had  confidence,  gave  excellent  reasons  for 
my  doing  so.  At  the  same  time  came  the  names  of  my 
colleagues,  and  this  led  me  to  feel  that  the  delegation 


THE  FIRST  IIA(;UE  COXFERENCE  3 

was  to  be  placed  on  a  higher  plane  than  I  had  expected. 
In  the  order  named  by  the  President,  they  were  as 
follows :  Andrew  D.  White  ;  Seth  Low,  President  of 
Columbia  ITniversity ;  Stanford  Newel,  INIinister  at  The 
Hague ;  Captain  Malum,  of  the  United  States  navy ; 
Captain  Crozier,  of  the  army ;  and  the  Hon.  Frederick 
W.  II oils  as  secretary.    In  view  of  all  this,  I  accepted. 

Soon  came  evidences  of  an  interest  in  the  confer- 
ence more  earnest  and  widespread  than  anything  I  had 
dreamed.  Books,  documents,  letters,  wise  and  unwise, 
thoughtful  and  crankish,  slirewd  and  childish,  poured  in 
upon  me  ;  in  all  classes  of  society  there  seemed  ferment- 
ing a  mixture  of  hope  and  doubt;  even  tlie  (lerman 
Emperor  apparently  felt  it,  for  sliortly  there  came  an 
invitation  to  the  palace,  and  on  my  arrival  I  found  that 
the  subject  uppermost  in  his  mind  was  the  approaching 
conference.  Of  our  conversation,  as  well  as  of  some  other 
interviews  at  this  period,  I  speak  elsewhere.^ 

On  the  16th  of  May  I  left  Berlin,  and  arrived  late  in 
the  .evening  at  The  Hague.  As  every  day's  doings  were 
entered  in  my  diary,  it  seems  best  to  give  an  account  of 
this  part  of  my  life  in  the  shape  of  extracts  from  it. 

May  17,  1899. 

This  morning,  on  going  out  of  our  hotel,  the  Oude 
Doelen,  I  found  that  since  my  former  visit,  thirty-five 
years  ago,  there  had  l)een  little  a[)parent  change.  It  is 
the  same  old  town,  quiet,  picturesque,  full  of  histori- 
cal monuments  a^d  art  treasures.  This  hotel  and  the 
neighboring  streets  had  been  decorated  with  the  flags 
of  various  nations,  including  our  own,  and  crowds  were 
1  See  June  12,  pp.  50-57,  below. 


4  THE  FIRST   IIACiUP:  CONFERENCE 

assembled  under  our  windows  and  in  the  public  places. 
The  hotel  is  m  one  of  the  most  attractive  parts  of  the 
city  architecturally  and  historically,  and  is  itself  interest- 
ing from  both  points  of  yiew.  It  lias  been  a  hostelry 
ever  since  the  ^Middle  Ages,  and  over  the  main  entrance 
a  tablet  mdicates  rebuilding  in  1625.  Connected  with 
it  by  interior  passages  are  a  number  of  buildings  which 
were  once  private  residences,  and  one  of  the  largest  and 
best  of  these  has  been  engaged  for  us.  Fortunately  the 
present  Secretary  of  State,  John  Hay,  has  been  in  the 
diplomatic  service ;  and  when  I  wrote  him,  some  weeks 
ago,  on  the  importance  of  proper  quarters  being  secured 
for  us,  he  entered  heartily  into  the  matter,  giving  full 
powers  to  the  minister  here  to  do  whatever  was  neces- 
sary, subject  to  my  approval.  Tlie  result  is  that  we  are 
quite  as  well  provided  for  as  any  other  delegation  at 
the  conference. 

In  the  afternoon  our  delegation  met  at  the  house  of  the 
^Vmerican  minister  and  was  duly  organized.  Although 
named  by  the  President  first  in  the  list  of  delegates,  I 
preferred  to  leave  the  matter  of  the  chairmanship  entirely 
to  my  associates,  and  they  now  unanimously  elected  me 
as  their  president. 

The  instructions  from  the  State  Department  were 
then   read.     These  were,   in   effect,   as  follows : 

The  first  article  of  the  Ilussian  proposals,  relating  to 
the  non-augmentation  of  land  and  sea  forces,  is  so  inap- 
plicable to  the  United  States  at  present  that  it  is  deemed 
advisable  to  leave  the  initiative,  upon  this  subject,  to 
the  representatives  of  those  powers  to  which  it  may 
properly  apply. 

As  regards  the  articles  relating  to  tlie  non-employment 


THE  FIRST   HAGUE  CONFERENCE  5 

of  new  firearms,  explosives  and  otlier  destructive  agen- 
cies, the  restricted  use  of  tlie  existing  instruments  of 
destruction,  and  the  prohibition  of  certain  contrivances 
employed  in  naval  warfare,  it  seems  to  the  department- 
that  they  are  lacking  in  practicability  and  that  the  discus- 
sion of  these  articles  would  probably  provoke  divergency 
rather  than  unanimity  of  view.  The  secretary  goes  on 
to  say  that  "  it  is  doubtful  if  wars  will  be  diminished 
by  rendering  them  less  destructive,  for  it  is  the  plain 
lesson  of  history  that  the  periods  of  peace  have  been 
longer  protracted  as  the  cost  and  destructiveness  of 
war  have  increased.  The  expediency  of  restraining  the 
inventive  genius  of  our  people  in  the  direction  of  de- 
vismg  means  of  defense  is  by  no  means  clear,  and,  con- 
sidering the  temptations  to  which  men  and  nations 
may  be  exposed  in  a  time  of  conflict,  it  is  doubtful  if 
an  international  agreement  of  this  nature  would  prove 
effective." 

As  to  the  fifth,  sixth  and  seventh  articles,  aiming,  in 
the  interest  of  humanity,  to  succor  those  who  by  the 
chance  of  battle  have  been  rendered  helpless,  to  alleviate 
their  sufferings,  and  to  insure  the  safety  of  those  whose 
mission  is  purely  one  of  peace  and  beneficence,  we  are 
instructed  that  any  practicable  proposals  should  receive 
our  earnest  support. 

On  the  eighth  article,  whicli  proposes  tlie  wider  exten- 
sion of  "  good  offices,  mediation  and  arbitration,"  the 
secretary  dwells  with  much  force,  and  finally  says :  '"'  The 
proposal  of  the  conference  promises  to  offer  an  oppor- 
tunity thus  far  unequaled  in  the  history  of  the  world  for 
mitiating  a  series  of  negotiations  that  may  lead  to  im- 
portant practical  results."    The  delegation  is  therefore 


6  THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

enjoined  to  propose,  at  an  opportune  moment,  a  plan  for 
an  International  Tribunal  of  Arbitration  which  is  an- 
nexed to  the  instructions,  and  to  use  their  uifluence  in 
the  conference  to  procure  the  adoption  of  its  substance. 

And,  finally,  we  are  instructed  to  propose  to  the  confer- 
ence the  principle  of  extending  to  strictly  private  prop- 
erty at  sea  the  immunity  from  destruction  or  capture  by 
belligerent  powers  analogous  to  that  which  such  property 
alread}^  enjoys  on  land,  and  to  endeavor  to  have  this 
principle  incorporated  in  the  permanent  law  of  civilized 
nations.  A  well-drawn  historical  resume  of  the  relations 
of  the  United  States  to  the  question  of  arbitration  thus 
far  is  added,  and  a  historical  summary  of  the  action  of 
the  United  States,  hitherto,  regarding  the  exemption  of 
private  property  at  sea  from  seizure  during  war. 

The  document  of  most  immediate  importance  is  the 
plan  furnished  us  for  international  arbitration.  Its  main 
features  are  as  follows: 

First,  a  tribunal  ''  composed  of  judges  chosen,  on  ac- 
count of  their  personal  integrity  and  learning  in  inter- 
national law,  by  a  majority  of  the  members  of  the  highest 
court  now  existing  in  each  of  the  adhering  states,  one 
from  each  sovereign  state  ^participating  in  the  treaty, 
w^ho  shall  hold  ol'lice  until  their  successors  arc  appointed 
by  tlie  same  body." 

Secondly,  the  tribunal  to  meet  for  organization  not 
later  than  six  months  after  the  treaty  shall  have  been 
ratified  by  nine  powers ;  to  organize  itself  as  a  perma- 
nent court,  with  such  officers  as  may  be  found  neces- 
sary, and  to  fix  its  OAvn  place  of  session  and  rules  of 
procedure. 

The  tliird  ai'ticle  provid(>s  that  "'  tlic  contracting  nations 


THE  FIRST  hagup:  COXFEREXCE  7 

will  mutually  agree  to  submit  to  the  international  tri- 
bunal all  questions  of  disagreement  between  them,  ex- 
cepting such  as  may  relate  to  or  involve  then-  political 
independence  or  territorial  integrity." 

The  fifth  article  runs  as  follows :  ''A  bench  of  judges 
for  each  particular  case  shall  consist  of  not  fewer  than 
three  nor  more  than  seven,  as  may  be  deemed  expedient, 
appointed  by  the  unanimous  consent  of  the  tribunal,  and 
shall  not  include  any  member  who  is  either  a  native,  suIj- 
ject  or  citizen  of  the  state  whose  interests  are  in  litiga- 
tion in  the  case." 

The  sixth  article  provides  that  the  general  expenses 
of  the  tribunal  be  divided  equally  among  the  adherent 
powers ;  but  that  those  arising  from  each  particular  case 
be  provided  for  as  may  be  directed  by  the  tribunal ;  also 
that  non-adherent  states  may  bring  their  cases  before  it, 
on  condition  of  the  mutual  agreement  that  the  state 
against  which  judgment  shall  be  found  shall  pay,  in  ad- 
dition to  the  judgment,  the  expenses  of  the  adjudication. 

The  seventh  article  makes  provision  for  an  appeal, 
within  three  months  after  the  notification  of  the  decision, 
upon  presentation  of  evidence  that  the  judgment  contains 
a  substantial  error  of  fact  or  law. 

The  eighth  and  final  article  provides  that  the  treaty 
shall  become  operative  when  nine  sovereign  states,  where- 
of at  least  six  shall  have  taken  part  in  the  conference  of 
The  Hague,  shall  have  ratified  its  provisions. 

It  turns  out  that  ours  is  the  only  delegation  which 
has  anything  like  a  full  and  carefully  adjusted  plan  for 
a  court  of  arbitration.  The  English  delegation,  though 
evidently  exceedingly  desirous  that  a  system  of  arbitra- 
tion be  adopted,  has  come  without  anything  definitely 


8  thp:  first  HAGUE  confp:rexce 

drawn.  The  Russians  have  a  scheme  ;  but,  so  far  as  can 
be  learned,  there  is  no  provision  in  it  for  a  permanent 
court. 

In  the  evening  there  was  a  general  assemblage  of  the 
members  of  the  conference  at  a  reception  given  by  Jonk- 
heer  van  Karnebeek,  formerly  Dutcli  minister  of  foreign 
affaks,  and  now  first  delegate  from  the  Netherlands  to 
tlie  conference.  It  was  very  brilliant,  and  I  made  many 
interesting  acquaintances  ;  but,  probably,  since  the  world 
began,  never  has  so  large  a  body  come  together  in  a 
spirit  of  more  hopeless  skepticism  as  to  any  good  result. 
Though  no  one  gives  loud  utterance  to  this  feelhig,  it  is 
none  the  less  deep.  Of  course,  among  all  these  delegates 
acquainted  with  public  men  and  measures  in  Europe, 
there  is  considerable  distrust  of  the  intentions  of  Russia ; 
and,  naturally,  the  weakness  of  the  Russian  Emperor  is 
well  understood,  though  all  are  reticent  regarding  it.  The 
only  open  utterances  are  those  attributed  to  one  or  two 
of  the  older  Eui-opean  diplomatists,  who  lament  being- 
sent  on  an  errand  which  they  fear  is  to  be  fruitless.  One 
of  these  is  said  to  have  bewailed  this  mission  as  a  sad  end- 
ing to  his  public  services,  and  to  have  declared  that  as 
he  had  led  a  long  life  of  devotion  to  his  country  and  to 
its  sovereign,  his  family  might  well  look  upon  his  career 
as  honorable ;  but  that  now  he  is  probably  doomed  to 
crown  it  witli  an  open  failure. 

May  18. 

At  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  the  conference  held  its 
open  session  at  the  "  House  in  the  Wood."  The  build- 
ing is  most  interesting,  presenting  as  it  does  the  art  and 
general  ideas  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago ;  it  is 


THE  FIRST  HAGUP:   CONFERENCE  9 

full  of  historical  associations,  and  the  groves  and  gar- 
dens about  it  are  delightful.  The  walls  and  dome  of  the 
great  central  hall  are  covered  with  immense  paintings  in 
the  style  of  Rubens,  mainly  by  his  pupils ;  and,  of  these, 
one  over  the  front  entrance  represents  Peace  descending 
from  heaven,  bearmg  various  symbols  and,  apparently, 
entering  the  hall.  To  this  M.  de  Beaufort,  our  honorary 
president,  the  Netherlands  minister  of  foreign  affairs, 
made  a  graceful  allusion  in  his  opening  speech,  express- 
ing the  hope  that  Peace,  having  entered  the  hall,  would 
go  forth  bearmg  blessings  to  the  world.  Another  repre- 
sentation, which  covers  one  immense  wall,  is  a  glorifica- 
tion of  various  princes  of  Orange :  it  is  in  full  front  of 
me,  as  I  sit,  the  Peace  fresco  being  visible  at  my  left,  and 
a  lovely  view  of  the  gardens,  and  of  the  water  beyond, 
through  the  windows  at  ni}'  right. 

The  ''  House  in  the  Wood "  was  built  early  in  the 
seventeenth  century  by  a  princess  of  the  house  of 
Orange,  the  grandmother  of  William  III  of  England. 
The  central  hall  under  the  dome,  above  referred  to,  is 
now  filled  up  with  seats  and  desks,  covered  with  green 
cloth,  very  neat  and  practical,  and  mainly  arranged  like 
those  in  an  English  college  chapel.  Good  fortune  has 
given  me  one  of  the  two  best  seats  in  the  house ;  it  being 
directly  in  front  of  the  secretaries,  who  are  arranged  in 
a  semicircle  just  below  the  desk  of  the  president :  at  my 
left  are  the  other  members  of  our  delegation,  and  facing 
me,  across  the  central  aisle,  is  Count  Miinster,  at  the 
head  of  the  German  delegation.  This  piece  of  good  luck 
comes  from  the  fact  that  we  are  seated  in  the  alpha- 
betical order  of  our  countries,  beginning  with  AUe7nagne, 
continuing  with  Amerique,  and  so  on  down  the  alphabet. 


10  THE  FIRST   HAGUE  CONFEUEXCE 

The  other  large  rooms  on  the  main  floor  are  exceed- 
ingly handsome,  with  superb  Japanese  and  Chinese  hang- 
ings, wrought  about  the  middle  of  the  last  century  to 
fit  the,  spaces  they  occupy;  on  all  sides  are  the  most 
perfect  specimens  of  Japanese  and  Chinese  bronzes, 
ivory  carvings,  laccpier  work,  and  the  like :  these  rooms 
are  given  up  to  the  committees  into  which  the  whole 
body  is  divided.  Upstairs  is  a  dining  hall  in  which  the 
Dutch  (jovernnient  serves,  every  working  day,  a  most 
bounteous  lunch  to  us  all,  and  at  this  there  is  much  op- 
portunity for  informal  discussion.  Near  the  mahi  hall 
is  a  sumptuous  saloon,  hung  round  with  interesting 
portraits,  one  of  them  being  an  admirable  likeness  of 
Motley  the  historian,  who  was  a  great  favorite  of  the 
late  Queen,  and  frequently  her  guest  in  this  palace. 

Our  first  session  was  very  interesting ;  the  speech  by 
the  honorary  president,  M.  de  Beaufort,  above  referred  to, 
was  in  every  way  admirable,  and  that  by  the  president, 
AI.  de  Staal,  thoroughly  good.  The  latter  is  the  Rus- 
sian ambassador  to  London  :  I  had  already  met  him  in 
St.  Petersburg,  and  found  him  interesting  and  agreeable. 
He  is,  no  doubt,  one  of  the  foremost  diplomatists  of  this 
epoch ;  but  he  is  evidently  without  much  knowledge 
of  parliamentary  procedure.  Congratulatory  telegrams 
were  received  from  the  Emperor  of  Russia  and  the 
Queen   of  the   Netherlands  and  <luly  answered. 

May  19. 

At  eleven  in  the  morning,  in  one  of  the  large  rooms 
of  the  hotel,  the  presidents  of  delegations  met  to  decide 
on  a  plan  of  organization  and  work  ;  and,  sitting  among 
them,  I  first  began  to  have  some  hopes  of  a  good  result. 


THE  FIRST   HAGUE  CONFERENCE  11 

Still,  at  the  outset,  the  prospect  was  much  beclouded. 
Though  a  very  considerable  number  of  the  foremost 
statesmen  in  Europe  were  present,  our  deliberations  a[)- 
peared,  for  a  time,  a  hopeless  chaos :  the  unfamiliarity  of 
our  president,  Baron  de  Staal,  with  parliamentary  usages 
seemed  likely  to  become  embarrassing;  but  sundry  states- 
men, more  experienced  in  such  matters,  began  drawing 
together,  and  were  soon  elaborating  a  scheme  to  be  pre- 
sented to  the  entire  conference.  It  divided  all  the 
subjects  named  in  the  Muravieff  circular  among  three 
great  committees,  the  most  important  being  that  on 
''Arbitration."  The  choice  of  representatives  on  these 
from  our  delegation  was  made,  and  an  ex-ofHcio  mem- 
bership of  all  three  falls  to  me. 

In  the  course  of  the  day  I  met  and  talked  with  various 
interesting  men,  among  them  C'ount  Nigra,  formei'ly  ( fa- 
vour's private  secretary  and  ambassador  at  the  court  of 
Napoleon  III,  where  he  accomplished  so  much  for  Italian 
unity;  Sir  Julian  Pauncefote,  the  British  ambassador  at 
Washington  ;  and  M.  Beernaert,  president  of  the  Belgian 
Chamber.  In  the  evening,  at  a  reception  given  by  the 
minister  of  foreign  affairs,  M.  de  Beaufort,  I  made  fur- 
ther acquaintances  and  had  instructive  conversations. 

In  addition  to  the  strict  duties  of  the  conference,  there 
is,  of  course,  a  mass  of  social  business,  with  no  end  of 
visits,  calls  and  special  meetings,  to  say  nothing  of  scxtial 
functions,  on  a  large  scale,  at  the  houses  of  sundry  min- 
isters and  officials ;  but  these,  of  course,  have  their 
practical  uses. 

The  Dutch  Government  is  showing  itself  princely  in 
various  ways,  making  every  provision  for  our  comfort 
and  enjoyment. 


12  THE  FIRST   HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

In  general,  I  am  considerably  encouraged.  The  skep- 
tical feeling  with  which  we  came  together  seems  now 
passmg  away  ;  the  recent  speech  of  the  Emperor  William 
at  Wiesbaden  has  aroused  new  hopes  of  a  fairly  good 
chance  for  arbitration,  and  it  looks  as  if  the  promise  made 
me  just  before  I  left  Berlin  by  Baron  von  Billow,  that 
the  German  delegation  should  cooperate  thorouglily  with 
our  own,  is  to  be  redeemed.  That  delegation  assures  us 
that  it  is  instructed  to  stand  by  us  as  far  as  possible  on 
all  the  principal  questions.  It  forms  a  really  fine  body, 
its  head  being  Count  Miinster,  whom  I  have  already 
found  very  agreeable  at  Berlin  and  Paris,  and  its  main 
authority  in  the  law  of  nations  being  Professor  Zorn,  of 
the  University  of  Konigsberg  ;  but,  curiously  enough,  as 
if  l)y  a  whim,  the  next  man  on  its  list  is  Professor  Baron 
von  Stengel  of  Mnnich,  ^\dK)  has  A\'ritten  a  book  agamst 
arbitration;  and  next  to  him  comes  Colonel  Schwartzhoff, 
said  to  be  a  man  of  remarkable  ability  in  military  matters, 
but  strongly  pivjudiced  against  the  Russian  proposals. 

As  to  arbitration,  we  cannot  make  it  compulsory,  as 
so  many  ver}^  good  people  wish  ;  it  is  clear  that  no  power 
hei'c  would  agree  to  that ;  but  even  to  provide  regular 
macliinery  for  arl)itration,  constantly  in  the  sight  of  all 
nations,  and  always  ready  for  use,  would  be  a  great  gain. 

As  to  disarmament,  it  is  clear  that  nothing  effective 
can  be  done  at  present.  The  Geneva  rules  for  the  better 
care  of  the  wounded  on  land  will  certainly  be  improved 
and  extended  to  warfare  on  sea,  and  the  laws  of  war  will 
doubtless  be  improved  and  given  stronger  sanction. 

Whether  w(^  can  get  our  proposals  as  to  private  prop- 
erty on  the  high  seas  Ix'fore  the  conference  is  uncertain  : 
but  I  tliiuk  we  can.    ()ur  h()[)es  are  based  U[)()n  the  fact 


THE  FIRST  HAGUE  COXFERENCE  13 

that  they  seem  admissible  under  one  heading  of  the  ]\Iu- 
ravieff  circular.  There  is,  of  course,  a  determination  on 
the  part  of  leading  members  to  exclude  rigorously  every- 
thing not  provided  for  in  the  origmal  program,  and 
this  is  only  right ;  for,  otherwise,  we  might  spend  years 
in  fruitless  discussion.  The  Armenians,  for  example,  are 
pressing  us  to  make  a  strong  declaration  in  their  behalf. 
Poland  is  also  here  with  proposals  even  more  inflamma- 
tor}^ ;  so  are  the  Finlanders ;  and  so  are  the  South  Afri- 
can Boers.  Their  proposals,  if  admitted,  would  simply  be 
bombshells  sure  to  blow  all  the  leading  nations  of  Europe 
out  of  the  conference  and  bring  everything  to  naught. 
Already  pessimists  outside  are  prophesying  that  on  ac- 
count of  these  Ci_uestions  we  are  doomed  to  utter  failure. 

The  peace  people  of  all  nations,  includmg  our  own,  are 
here  in  great  force.  I  liave  accepted  an  invitation  from 
one  of  tliem  to  lunch  with  a  party  of  like  mind,  includ- 
ing Baroness  von  Suttner,  who  has  written  a  brilliant 
book,  "  Die  Waffen  Nieder,"  of  which  the  moral  is  that 
all  nations  shall  immediately'  throw  down  their  arms. 
]Mr.  Stead  is  also  here,  vigorous  as  usual,  full  of  curious 
information,  and  abounding  in  suggestions. 

There  was  a  report,  on  our  arriving,  that  the  Triple 
Alliance  representatives  are  instructed  to  do  everythmg 
to  bring  the  conference  into  discredit,  but  this  is  now 
denied.  It  is  said  that  their  program  is  changed,  and 
things  look  like  it.  On  the  whole,  though  no  one  is 
sanguine,  there  is  more  hope. 

k 

May  21. 

In  the  morning  went  with  Dr.  Holls  to  a  "V^liitsunday 
service  at  the  great  old  church  here.    There  was  a  crowd, 


14  THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

impressive  chorals,  and  a  sermon  at  least  an  hour  long. 
At  our  request,  we  were  given  admirable  places"  in  the 
organ  loft,  and  sat  at  the  side  of  the  organist  as  he  man- 
aged that  noble  instrument.  It  was  sublime.  After  the 
closing  voluntary  Holls  played  remarkably  well. 

To  me  the  most  striking  feature  in  the  service  was  a 
very  earnest  prayer  made  by  the  clergyman  for  the  con- 
ference. During  the  afternoon  we  also  visited  the  old 
prison  near  the  Vijver,  where  the  De  Witts  and  other 
eminent  prisoners  of  state  were  confined,  and  in  front 
of  which  the  former  were  torn  in  pieces  by  the  mob. 
Sadly  interesting  was  a  collection  of  instruments  of  tor- 
ture, which  had  the  effect  of  making  me  better  satisfied 
with  our  own  times  than  I  sometimes  am. 

In  the  evening,  with  our  minister,  INIr.  Newel,  and  the 
Dean  of  Ely,  his  guest,  to  an  exceedingly  pleasant ''  tea  " 
at  the  house  of  Baroness  (xravensteen,  and  met  a  number 
of  interesting  people,  among  them  a  kindly  old  gentle- 
man who  began  diplomatic  life  as  a  British  attache  at 
Washington  in  the  days  of  A\'el)ster  and  ('lay,  and  gave 
me  interesting  accounts  of  them. 

The  queer  letters  and  crankish  pro[)Osals  which  come 
in.  every  day  are  amazing.  I  have  just  added  to  my  col- 
lection of  diplomatic  curiosities  a  letter  from  tlie  editor 
of  a  Democratic  paper  in  southern  Illinois,  addressed  to 
me  as  ambassador  at  Mayence^  which  he  evidently  takes 
to  be  the  capital  of  Germany,  asking  me  to  look  after  a 
great  party  of  Westi-rn  news})a})er  men  who  are  to  go  up 
the  Rhine  this  suihiikm'  and  make  a  brief  stay  in  the 
above-named  capital  of  the  empire.  I  also  receive  very 
many  letters  of  introduction,  which  of  course  make  large 
dcniaiids  upon  my  time.    The  number  of  epistles,  also, 


THE  FIRST   HAGUE   COXFEREXCE  15 

which  come  in  from  public  meetings  in  large  and  small 
American  towns  is  very  great,  some  evidently  represent- 
ing no  persons  other  than  the  Avriters.  As  I  write  the 
above,  I  open  mechanically  a  letter  from  a  peace  meeting 
assembled  in  Ledyard,  Connecticut,  composed  of  "  Jioger- 
ine  Quakers  ";  but  what  a  "  Rogerine  Quaker  "  is  I  know 
not.  Some  of  these  letters  are  touching,  and  some  have 
a  comic  side.  A  very  good  one  comes  from  May  Wriglit 
Sewall ;  would  that  all  the  others  were  as  thoughtful! 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  Quakers  are  out  in 
full  force.  We  have  been  answering  by  cable  some  of 
the  most  important  communications  sent  us  from  Amer- 
ica ;  the  others  we  shall  try  to  acknowledge  by  mail, 
though  they  are  so  numerous  that  I  begin  to  despair  of 
this.  If  these  good  people  only  knew  how  all  this  dis- 
tracts us  from  the  work  wliich  we  have  at  lieart  as 
much  as  they,  we  should  get  considerably  more  time  to 
think  upon  the  problems  before  us. 

MaT/  22. 

In  the  afternoon  came  M.  de  Bloch,  the  great  publi- 
cist, who  has  written  four  enormous  volumes  on  war  in 
modern  times,  summaries  of  which,  in  the  newspapers, 
are  said  to  have  converted  the  young  Emperor  Nicholas 
to  peace  ideas,  and  to  have  been  the  real  cause  of  his 
calling  the  conference  together.  I  found  him  interesting, 
full  of  ideas,  and  devoted  most  earnestly  to  a  theory 
that  militarism  is  gxadually  impoverishing  all  modern 
states,  and  that  the  next  European  war  will  paupei'ize 
most  of  them. 

Just  afterward  Count  Welsersheimb,  president  of  the 
Austrian   delegation,  called,   and  was   very  anxious   to 


k;  the  first  iiA(iL'j-:  coxferexck 

know  the  line  we  are  to  take.  I  tokl  liini  frankly  that 
we  are  instructed  to  present  a  plan  of  arbitration,  and 
to  urge  a  resolution  in  favor  of  exempting  pri\^ate  prop- 
erty, not  contraband  of  war,  from  seizure  on  the  high 
seas ;  that  we  are  ready  to  go  to  the  full  length  in  im- 
proving the  laws  of  war,  and  in  extending  the  Geneva 
rules  to  maritime  warfare ;  but  that  we  look  on  the  ques- 
tion of  reducing  armaments  as  relating  wholly  to  Europe, 
no  part  of  it  being  applicable  to  the  United  States. 

As  he  seemed  strongly  in  favor  of  our  contention  re- 
garding private  property  on  the  high  seas,  but  fearful 
that  Russia  and  England,  under  a  strict  construction  of 
the  rules,  would  not  permit  the  subject  to  be  introduced, 
I  pointed  out  to  him  certain  clauses  in  the  Muravieff 
circular  which  showed  that  it  was  entirely  admissible. 

May  23. 

In  the  morning  came  a  meethig  of  the  American  dele- 
gation on  the  subject  of  telegraphing  AVasliington  for 
further  instructions.  \\&  find  that  some  of  the  details 
in  our  present  instructions  are  likely  to  wreck  our  pro- 
posals, and  there  is  a  fear  among  us  that,  by  following 
too  closely  the  plan  laid  down  for  us  at  Washington,  we 
may  run  full  in  the  face  of  the  Monroe  doctrine.  It  is, 
indeed,  a  question  whether  our  people  will  be  willing 
to  have  matters  of  difference  between  South  American 
States,  or  between  the  United  States  and  a  South  Ameri- 
can State,  or  between  European  and  South  Anicrican 
States,  submitted  to  an  arbitration  in  which  a  majority 
of  the  judges  are  subjects  of  European  powers.  \^irious 
drafts  of  a  telegram  were  made,  but  the  whole  matter 
went  over. 


THE   FIRST   HAGUE   CONFERENCE  17 

At  ten  the  heads  of  delegations  met  and  considered  a 
plan  of  organizing  the  various  committees,  and  the  list 
was  read.  Each  of  the  three  great  committees  t(j  which 
the  subjects  mentioned  in  the  INIuravieff  circular  are 
assigned  was  given  a  president,  vice  president  and  two 
honorary  presidents.  The  first  of  these  committees  is  to 
take  charge  of  tlie  preliminary  discussion  of  those  articles 
in  the  ^luravieft"  circular  concerning  the  non-augmen- 
tation of  armies  and  the  limitation  in  the  use  of  new 
explosives  and  of  especially  destructive  weapons.  The 
second  committee  has  for  its  subject  the  discussion  of 
humanitarian  reforms  —  namely,  the  adaptation  of  the 
stipulations  of  the  Convention  of  (xeneva  of  1864  to 
maritime  warfare,  the  neutralization  of  vessels  charged 
with  saving  the  wounded  during  maritime  combats,  and 
the  revision  of  the  declaration  concerning  customs  of 
war  elal)orated  in  187-1  by  tlie  Conference  of  Brussels, 
whicli  has  never  yet  been  ratified.  Tlie  third  committee 
has  charge  of  the  subject  of  arl)itration,  mediation  and 
the  like. 

The  president  of  the  first  committee  is  M.  Beernaert, 
a  leading  statesman  of  Belgium,  who  has  nrade  a  most 
excellent  impression  on  me  from  the  first ;  and  the 
two  honorary  presidents  are  Count  ^lunster,  German 
ambassador  at  Paris,  and  myself. 

The  president  of  the  second  committee  is  M.  de 
Martens,  the  eminent  Russian  authority  on  international 
law ;  and  the  two  honorary  presidents.  Count  Welsers- 
heimb  of  Austria-Hungary,  and  the  Duke  of  Tetuan 
from  Spain. 

The  third  comnnttee  receives  -as  its  president  M.  Leon 
Bourgeois,  wdio  has  held  ^'ari(JUs  eminent  positions  in 


18  THE  FIRST   HAGUE  COXFERENCE 

France  ;  the  honorary  presidents  being  Connt  Nigra,  the 
Italian  ambassador  at  Vienna,  and  Sir  Juhan  Paunce- 
fote,  the  British  ambassador  at  Washington. 

There  was  much  discussion  and  considerable  difference 
of  opinion  on  many  points,  but  the  main  breeze  sprang 
up  regarding  the  publicity  of  our  doings.  An  admirable 
speech  was  made  by  Baron  de  Bildt,  who  is  a  son  of  my 
former  Swedish  colleague  at  Berlin,  has  held  various 
important  positions  at  Washington  and  elsewhere,  has 
written  an  admirable  history  of  Queen  Christina  of 
Sweden,  and  is  no^y  minister  plenipotentiary  at  Home. 
He  spoke  earnestly  in  favor  of  considerable  latitude  in 
communications  to  the  press  from  the  authorities  of  tlie 
conference ;  but  the  prevailing  opinion,  especially  of  the 
older  men,  even  of  those  from  constitutional  states, 
seemed  to  second  the  idea  of  Russia  —  that  communi- 
cations to  the  press  should  be  reduced  to  a  mhiimum, 
comprising  merely  the  external  affairs  of  the  conference. 
I  am  persuaded  that  this  view  will  get  us  into  trouble ; 
but  it  cannot  be  helped  at- present. 

May  24. 

As  was  to  be  exjiectod,  tliere  has  begun  some  reaction 
iVom  the  hopes  indulged  shoi-ily  aftcn-  tlie  conferenc^e 
came  together.  At  our  arrival  there  was  general  skep- 
ticism ;  shortly  afterward,  and  especially  when  the  or- 
ccanization  of  tlu;  arbitration  committee  was  seen  to  be 
so  good,  tliere  came  a  great-  growth  of  hope  ;  now  comes 
tlie  usual  fallino-  back  of  man  v.  l)Ut  I  trust  that  this  will 
not  be  permanent.  Yesterday  then;  was  some  talk  whi(;h, 
though  quiet,  was  none'the  less  bitter,  to  the  effect  that 
the  pur[)ose  of  Russia  in  calling  the  conference  is  only 


THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE  19 

to  secure  time  for  strengthening  lier  armaments;  that 
she  was  never  increasing  her  forces  at  a  greater  rate, 
especially  in  the  soutliwestern  part  of  the  empire  and  in 
the  Caucasus,  and  never  intriguing  more  vigorously  in 
all  directions.  To  one  who  stated  this  to  me  my  answer 
simply  was  that  bad  faith  to  this  extent  on  the  part  of 
Russia  is  most  unlikely,  if  not  impossible  ;  that  it  would 
hand  down  the  Emperor  and  his  advisers  to  the  eternal 
execration  and  contempt  of  mankind ;  and  that,  in  any 
case,  our  duty  is  clear:  to  go  on  and  do  the  best  we 
can  ;  to  perfect  plans  for  a  permanent  tribunal  of  arbitra- 
tion ;  and  to  take  measures  for  diminislnng  cruelty  and 
suffering  in  war. 

JNIeeting  Count  Miinster,  who,  after  M.  de  Staal,  is 
very  generally  considered  the  most  important  personage 
here,  we  discussed  the  subject  of  arbitration.  To  ni}^ 
great  regret,  1  found  him  entirely  opposed  to  it,  or,  at 
least,  entirely  opposed  to  any  Avell-developed  })lan.  He 
did  not  say  that  he  would  oppose  a  moderate  plan  for 
voluntary  arbitration,  but  lit;  uisisted  that  arbitration 
must  be  injurious  to  Germany  ;  that  Germany  is  prepared 
for  war  as  no  other  country  is  or  can  be ;  that  she  can 
mobilize  her  army  in  ten  days ;  and  that  neither  France, 
Russia  nor  any  other  power  can  do  this.  Arbitration,  he 
said,  would  simply  give  rival  powers  time  to  put  them- 
selves in  readiness,  and  would  therefore  be  a  great  dis- 
advantage to  Germany. 

Later  came  another  disappointment.  ]\I.  de  ^Martens, 
having  read  the  memorandum  which  1  left  with  him  yes- 
terday on  the  subject  of  exempting  private  property,  not 
contraband  of  war,  from  seizure  upon  the  liigh  seas, 
called,  and  insisted  that  it  would  be  impossible,  under 


20  THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

any  just  construction  of  the  Muravieff  program,  to 
bring  the  subject  before  tlie  second  committee  as  we  had 
hoped  to  do ;  that  Russia  would  feel  obliged  to  oppose 
its  introduction ;  and  that  Great  Britam,  France  and 
Italy,  to  say  nothing  of  other  powers,  would  do  the  same. 
This  was  rather  trying,  for  1  had  especially  desired  to 
press  this  long-desired  improvement  in  international  law  ; 
and  I  showed  him  ho\\'  persistent  the  United  States  had 
been  as  regards  this  subject  throughout  our  whole  his- 
tory, how  earnest  the  President  and  his  cabinet  are  iii 
pressing  it  now,  and  how  our  delegation  are  bound,  under 
our  instructions,  to  bring  it  before  the  conference.  I 
insisted  that  we  should  at  least  have  the  opportunity  to 
present  it,  even  if  it  were  afterward  declared  out  of  order. 
To  this  he  demurred,  saying  that  he  feared  it  would 
arouse  unpleasant  debate.  I  then  suggested  that  the 
paper  be  publicly  submitted  to  our  whole  body  for  special 
reference  to  a  future  conference,  and  this  he  took  into 
consideration.  Under  other  circumstances,  I  would  have 
made  a  struggle  in  the  conuuittee  and,  indeed,  in  the  open 
session  of  the  full  conference ;  but  it  is  clear  that  w^hat 
we  are  sent  here  for  is,  above  all,  to  devise  some  scheme 
of  arbitration,  and  that  anything  which  comes  in  the  way 
of  this,  by  provoking  ill  feeling  or  pi'olonghig  discussion 
on  other  points,  will  diminish  our  chances  of  obtaining 
what  the  whole  world  so  earnestly  desires. 

During  the  day  our  American  delegation  held  two 
sessions ;  and,  as  a  result,  a  telegram  of  considerable 
length  to  the  State  Department  was  elaborated,  asking 
permission  to  substitute  a  new  section  in  our  original 
instructions  regarding  an  arbitration  tribunal,  and  to  be 
allowed  liberty  to  make  changes  in  minor  |)oints,  as  the 


THE  FIRST   HAGUE  CONFEREXCE  21 

development  of  opinion  in  the  conference  may  demand. 
The  substitute  which  we  suggested  referred  especially 
to  the  clash  between  the  original  instructions  and  the 
Monroe  doctrine.  I  was  very  reluctant  to  send  the  dis- 
patch; but,  on  the  whole,  it  seemed  best,  and  it  was 
adopted  unanimously. 

In  the  afternoon,  at  five,  the  presidents  of  all  the  dele- 
gations Avent  to  the  palace,  by  appointment,  and  were 
presented  to  tlie  young  Queen  and  to  the  Queen  mother. 
The  former  is  exceedingly  modest,  pretty  and  pleasant ; 
and  as  she  came  into  the  room,  about  which  were  ranged 
that  Ime  of  solemn,  elderly  men,  it  seemed  almost  pathetic. 
She  was  evidently  timid,  and  it  was,  at  first,  hard  work 
for  her  ;  but  she  got  along  well  with  Count  ^Minister,  and 
when  she  came  to  me  I  soon  brought  the  conversation 
upon  the  subject  of  the  "  House  in  the  Wood  "  by  thank- 
ing her  for  the  pains  her  government  had  taken  m  pro- 
viding so  beautiful  a  place  for  us.  This  new  topic  seemed 
to-  please  her,  and  we  had  quite  a*long  talk  upon  it ;  she 
speaking  of  her  visits  to  the  park,  for  skating  and  the 
like,  and  I  dwelling  on  tlie  beauty  of  the  works  of  art 
and  the  views  in  tlie  park.  Then  the  delegates,  going  to 
the  apartments  of  the  Queen  mother,  went  through  a 
similar  formality  with  her.  She  is  ver}-  stout,  but  fine- 
looking,  with  a  kindly  face  and  manner.  Both  mother  and 
daughter  spoke,  with  perfect  ease,  Dutch,  French,  Ger- 
man, English  and  how  many  other  languages  I  know  not. 
The  young  Queen  was  very  simply  dressed,  like  any  other 
young  lady  of  seventeen,  except  that  she  had  a  triple 
row  of  large  pearls  about  her  neck.  In  the  evening,  at 
9.30,  the  entire  delegations  were  received  at  a  great  pres- 
entation and  ball.   The  music  was  verv  fine,  but  the  most 


22  THE   FIRST   HAGUE   CONFERENCE 

interesting  thing  to  me  was  the  fact  that,  as  the  palace 
was  built  under  Louis  Bonaparte  and  Hortense,  the  main 
rooms  were  in  the  most  thoroughgoing  style  emjnre,  not 
only  in  their  decorations,  but  in  their  furniture  and  acces- 
sories —  clocks,  vases,  candelabra  and  the  like.  I  have 
never  seen  that  style,  formerly  so  despised,  Ijut  now  so 
fashionable,  developed  as  fully. 

After  the  presentation  I  met  Sir  John  Fisher,  one  of 
the  English  delegates,  an  admiral  in  the  British  navy, 
and  found  him  very  intelligent,  lie  said  that  he  was 
thoroughly  for  peace,  and  had  every  reason  to  be  so,  since 
he  knew  something  of  the  horrors  of  war.  It  appears 
that  in  one  of  the  recent  struggles  in  China  he  went 
ashore  with  eleven  hundred  men  and  returned  with"  only 
about  five  hundred;  but,  to  my  regret,  I  found  him 
using  the  same  argument  as  regards  the  sea  that  Count 
Mlinster  had  made  regarding  the  land.  He  said  that  the 
navy  of  Great  Britain  was  and  would  remain  in  a  state 
of  complete  preparation  for  war ;  that  a  vast  deal  de- 
pended on  prompt  action  by  the  navy  ;  and  that  the  truce 
afforded  by  arbitration  ])r()ceedings  would  give  other 
powers  time,  which  they  would  otherwise  not  have,  to  put 
themselves  into  complete  readiness.  1 1(;  seemed  uncertain 
whether  it  was  best  for  (Jreat  liritain,  under  these  cir- 
cumstances, to  support  a  thoroughgoing  plan  of  arbitra- 
tion ;  but,  on  the  whole,  seemed  inclined  to  try  it  to  some 
extent.  Clearly  what  Great  Britain  wants  is  a  permanent 
system  of  arbitration  with  the  I'nited  States;  but  she 
does  not  care  much,  I  lliiiik,  for  such  a  provision  as 
regards  other  powers. 

There  is  considerable  curiosity  among  leading  mem- 
bers to  know  what  the  rniled  States  really  intends  to 


THE   FIRST   HAGUE  CONFERENCE  23 

do ;    and    during   the   day   Sir   Julian   Pauncefote    and 
others  have  called  to  talk  over  the  general  subject. 

The  London  Thm;^  gives  quite  correctly  a  conver- 
sation of  mine,  of  ratlier  an  optimistic  nature,  as  to  the 
possibilities  and  probabilities  of  arbitration,  and  the  im- 
provement of  the  customs  of  war  ;  but  in  another  quarter 
matters  have  not  gone  so  well:  the  Gorriere  delta  Sera 
of  Milan  publishes  a  circumstantial  interview  with  me, 
which  has  been  copied  extensively  in  the  European  press, 
to  the  effect  that  I  have  declared  my  belief  in  the  adoption 
of  compulsory  arbitration  and  disarmament.  This  is  a 
grotesque  misstatement.  I  have  never  dreamed  of  say- 
ing anything  of  the  kind  ;  in  fact,  have  constantly  said 
the  contrary ;  and,  what  is  more,  I  have  never  been  in- 
terviewed by  the  correspondent  of  that  or  of  any  other 
Continental  paper. 


II 

Mai/  2o. 

THIS  morning  a  leading  delegate  of  one  of  the  great 
European  powers  called  and  gave  me  a  very  inter- 
esting; account  of  the  situation  as  he  sees  it. 

He  stated  that  the  liussian  representatives,  on  arriv- 
ing here,  gave  out  that  they  were  not  prepared  with  any 
plan  for  a  definite  tril)unal  of  arbitration;  but  that 
shortly  afterward  there  appeared  some  discrepancy  on 
this  point  between  the  statements  of  the  various  mem- 
bers of  their  delegation  ;  and  that  they  now  propose  a 
system  of  arbitration,  mediation  and  examination  into 
any  cause  of  difficulty  between  nations. 

In  the  evening  our  secretary  spoke  of  the  matter  to 
De  Staal,  the  president  of  the  Russian  delegation  and  of 
the  conference,  and  was  told  that  this  plan  would,  within 
a  day  or  two,  be  printed  and  laid  before  the  whole  body. 

This  is  a  favorable  sio-n.  Alore  and  more  it  looks  as 
if  the  great  majority  of  us  are  beginning  to  see  the  neces- 
sity of  some  scheme  of  arl)itration  embracing  a  court  and 
definite,  wt'll-contrived  accessories. 

The  above-mentioned  discrepancy  between  the  various 
statements  of  tlu;  Russians  leads  me  to  think  that  what 
Count  Miinster  told  me  some  days  since  may  have  some 
truth  in  it  —  namely,  that  Pobyedonostzeff,  whom  I  knew 
well,  when  minister  to  Russia,  as  the  strongest  man  on 
iiiiiial,  religious  and  social  questions  in  that  country,  is 
really  the  author  of  the  documents  that  were  oViginally 

24 


THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE  25 

given  to  the  world  as  emanating  from  the  Russian  For- 
eign Office,  and  that  he  has  now  added  to  tliem  this 
definite  scheme  for  arbitration.  Remembering  our  old 
conversations,  in  which  he  dwelt  upon  the  great  need 
of  money  in  order  to  increase  the  stipends  of  the  Russian 
clergy,  and  so  improve  their  moral  as  well  as  religious 
condition,  I  can  understand  easily  tliat  he  may  have 
greatly  at  heart  a  plan  which  would  save  a  portion  of 
the  enormous  expenditure  of  Russia  on  war,  and  enable 
him  t(j  do  more  for  the  improvement  of  the  church. 

Dined  at  the  British  legation  with  the  minister,  my 
old  friend  of  St.  Petersburg  days.  Sir  Henry  Howard,  De 
Martens,  the  real  head  of  the  Russian  delegation,  being 
of  the  party,  and  had  a  long  talk  with  the  latter  about 
Russia  and  Russians.  He  told  me  that  Pobyedonostzeff  is" 
now  becoming  okl  and  infirm,  and  it  appears  that  there 
has  been  a  sort  of  cleaning  out  of  the  Foreign  Office 
and  the  Ministry  of  the  Interior  —  a  procedure  which 
was  certainly  needed  in  my  time. 

Later  in  the  evening  we  went  to  a  reception  by  Baron 
van  Hardenbroek,  the  grand  chamberlain,  where  I  met 
various  interesting  persons,  especially  M.  Descamps,  the 
eminent  Belgian  delegate,  who,  in  the  fervor  of  his  speech 
yesterday  morning,  upset  his  inkstand  and  lavished  its 
contents  on  his  neighbors.  He  is  a  devotee  of  arbitration, 
and  is  preparmg  a  summary  for  the  committee  intrusted 
with  that  subject.  There  seemed  to  be,  in  discussing 
the  matter  with  various  delegates  at  this  reception,  a 
general  feeling  of  encouragement. 

During  the  day  Mr.  Loeher,  a  Berlin  sculptor,  called, 
and  carried  me  off  to  see  his  plan  of  a  great  statue  of 
"  Peace  "  which  he  hopes  to  induce  the  Emperor  Nicholas 


2G  THE  FIRST   HAGUE  COXFERENCE 

to  erect  in  Paris.  It  seems  to  me  well  conceived,  all  ex- 
cept the  main  figure,  which  I  could  not  induce  myself  to 
like.  Jn  the  anxiety  of  the  sculptor  to  avoid  any  more 
female  figures,  and  to  embody  virile  aspirations  for  peace, 
he  has  placed  this  main  figure  at  the  summit  of  the  monu- 
ment in  something  like  a  long  pea  jacket,  with  an  insuffi- 
cient mantle  at  the  back,  and  a  crown  upon  its  head. 

The  number  of  people  with  plans,  schemes,  notions, 
nostrums,  whimsies  of  all  sorts,  who  press  upon  us  and 
try  to  take  our  time,  is  enormous  ;  and  when  to  this  is 
added  the  pest  of  interviewers  and  photographers,  life 
becomes  serious  indeed. 

May  26. 

At  two  the  connnittee  on  arbitration  met,  and,  as  it  is 
the  largest  of  all,  its  session  was  hefd  in  the  main  hall 
under  the  dome.  The  Russian  plan  was  presented,  and 
was  found  to  embrace  three  distinct  features : 

First,  elements  of  a  plan  of  mediation  ;  secondly,  a 
plan  for  international  arl)itration  ;  thirdly,  a  plan  for  the 
international  examination  of  questions  arising  between 
powers,  su(^h  examination  being  conducted  by  persons 
chosen  by  each  of  the  contestants.  This  last  is  a  new 
feature,  and  is  known  as  a  commisaion  {nternafionale 
d'enquSte. 

The  project  for  a  plan  of  arbitration  submits  a  num- 
ber of  minor  matters  to  compulsory  arbitration,  but  the 
main  mass  of  differences  to  voluntary  arbitration. 

But  there  was  no  definite  proposal  for  a  tribunal,  and 
there  was  an  evident  feeding  of  disappointment,  which 
was  presently  voiced  by  Sir  Julian  Pauncefotc,  who,  in 
the  sort  of  plain,  dogged  way  of  a  man   who  docs  not 


THE  FIRST  HAGUE  C(3NFERENCE  27 

purpose  to  lose  what  he  came  for,  presented  a  resolution 
looking  definitely  to  the  establishment,  here  and  now, 
of  an  international  tribunal  of  arbitration.  After  some 
discussion,  the  whole  was  referred  to  a  subcommittee,  to 
put  this  and  any  other  proposals  submitted  into  shape 
for  discussion  by  the  main  committee.  In  the  course  of 
the  morning  the  American  delegation  received  an  answer 
to  its  telegram  to  the  State  Department,  which  was  all 
that  could  be  desired,  since  it  left  us  virtually  free  to 
take  the  course  which  circumstances  might  authorize,  in 
view  of  the  main  object  to  be  attained.  But  it  came  too 
late  to  enable  us  to  elaborate  a  plan  for  the  meeting  above 
referred  to,  and  I  obtained  permission  from  the  presi- 
dent, M.  Leon  Bourgeois,  to  defer  tlie  presentation  of 
our  scheme  until  about  the  middle  of  next  week. 

Just  before  the  session  of  the  main  committee,  at  which 
the  Russian  plan  was  received,  I  had  a  long  and  very  in- 
teresting talk  with  Mr.  van  Karnebeek,  one  of  the  lead- 
ing statesmen  of  the  Netherlands,  a  former  minister  of 
foreign  affairs,  and  the  present  chief  of  the  Dutch  dele- 
gation in  the  conference.  He  seems  clear-headed  and  far- 
sighted,  and  his  belief  is  that  the  conference  will  really 
do  something  of  value  for  arbitration.  He  says  that  men 
who  arrived  here  apparently  indifferent  have  now  become 
interested,  and  that  amour  propre,  if  nothing  else,  will 
lead  them  to  elaborate  somethhig  likely  to  be  useful.  He 
went  at  considerable  length  into  the  value  of  an  interna- 
tional tribunal,  even  if  it  does  nothing  more  than  keep 
nations  mindful  of  the  fact  that  there  is  some  way,  other 
than  war,  of  settling  disputes. 

A  delegate  also  informed  me  that  in  talking  with 
M.  de  Staal  the  latter  declared  that  in  his  opinion  the 


28  THE  FIRST   HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

present  conference  is  only  the  first  of  a  series,  and  tliat 
it  is  quite  lilvcly  that  another  will  be  held  next  winter 
or  next  spring. 

In  the  evening  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  ]Mr.  J\Iar- 
shall,  a  newspaper  correspondent,  who  is  here  preparing 
some  magazine  articles  on  The  Hague  and  the  conference. 
He  is  a  very  interesting  man  on  various  accounts,  and 
especially  at  present,  since  he  has  but  just  returned  from 
the  Cuban  campaign,  where  he  was  fearfully  wounded, 
receiving  two  shots  which  carried  away  parts  of  the  ver- 
tebral column,  a  bullet  being  left  in  his  body.  He  seems 
very  cheerful,  though  obliged  to  get  about  on  crutches. 

May  27. 

In  the  morning,  calls  from  various  people  urging  all 
kmds  of  schemes  for  arljitration  and  various  other  good 
thino's  for  the  human  race,  includinsr  considerable  advan- 
tages,  in  many  cases,  for  themselves. 

Best  of  all,  by  far,  was  John  Bellows  of  Gloucester, 
our  old  Quaker  friend  at  St.  Petersburg,  whom  I  was 
exceedingly  glad  to  take  by  the  hand :  he,  at  least,  is 
a  thoroughly  good  man  —  sincere,  honest,  earnest  and 
blessed  with  good  sense. 

Th(!  luimber  of  documents,  printed  and  written,  com- 
ing ill  upon  us  is  still  enormous.  Many  are  virtually  ser- 
mons displaying  the  evils  of  war,  the  blessings  of  peace, 
and  the  necessity  of  falling  back  upon  the  Bible.  Con- 
sidering the  fact  that  our  earlier  sacred  books  indicate 
approval  by  the  Almighty  of  some  of  the  most  blood- 
thirsty peoples  and  most  cruel  wars  ever  known,  such 
a  recommendation  seems  lacking  in  "  actuality." 

This  morning  we  had  another  visit  from  Sir  Julian 


THE   FIRST   HAGUE  COXFEREXCE  29 

Pauncefote,  president  of  the  British  delegation,  and  dis- 
cussed with  him  an  amalgamation  of  the  Russian,  British 
and  American  proposals  for  an  arbitration  triljunal.  He 
finds  himself,  as  we  all  do,  agreeably  surprised  by  the 
Russian  document,  which,  inadequate  as  it  is,  shows 
ability  in  devising  a  permanent  scheme  both  for  media- 
tion and  arbitration. 

During  the  day  President  Low,  who  had  been  asked 
by  our  delegation  to  bring  the  various  proposals  agreed 
to  by  us  into  definite  shape,  made  his  report ;  it  was  thor- 
oughly well  done,  and,  with  some  slight  changes,  was 
adopted  as  the  basis  for  our  final  project  of  an  arbitra- 
tion scheme.  We  are  all  to  meet  on  Monday,  the  29th, 
for  a  study  of  it. 

In  the  evening  to  the  concert  given  to  the  conference 
by  the  burgomaster  and  city  council.  It  was  very  fine, 
and  the  audience  was  large  and  brilliant.  There  was 
music  by  Tschaikowsky,  Grieg  and  Wagner,  some  of 
which  was  good,  but  most  of  it  seemed  to  me  noisy  and 
tending  nowhither ;  happily,  in  the  midst  of  it  came  two 
noble  pieces,  one  by  Beethoven  and  the  other  by  Mozart, 
which  gave  a  delightful  relief. 

Maij  28. 

Drove  with  Dr.  Holls  to  Delft,  five  miles,  and  attended 
service  at  the  ''  New  Church."  The  building  was  noble, 
but  the  service  seemed  very  crude  and  dismal,  nearly  the 
whole  of  it  consisting  of  two  long  sermons  separated  by 
hymns,  and  all  unspeakably  dreary. 

Afterward  we  saw  the  tombs  of  William  of  Orange 
and  Grotius,  and  they  stirred  many  thoughts.  I  visited 
them  first  nearly  forty  years  ago,  with  three  persons  very 


30  THE  FIRST   HAGUE  COXFEREXCE 

dear  to  me,  all  of  whom  are  now  passed,  away.  jNIore  than 
ever  it  is  clear  to  me  that  of  all  books  ever  written  —  not 
claiming  divine  inspiration  —  the  great  work  of  Grotius 
on  ''  War  and  Peace  "  has  been  of  most  benefit  to  man- 
kind. Our  work  here,  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, is  the  direct  result  of  his,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
seventeenth. 

Afterward  to  the  Prinzenhof,  visiting  the  place  where 
William  of  Orange  was  assassinated.  Was  glad  to  see 
the  new  statue  of  Grotius  in  front  of  the  church  where 
he  lies  buried. 

May  29. 

In  the  morning  President  Low  and  mj^self  walked,  and 
talked  over  various  proposals  for  arbitration,  especially 
our  own.  It  looks  much  as  if  we  can  amalgamate  the 
Russian,  British  and  original  American  plans  into  a  good 
arrangement  for  a  tribunal.  We  also  discussed  a  scheme 
for  the  selection,  by  disagreeing  nations,  of  "  seconding 
powers,"  who,  before  the  beginning  of  hostilities,  or  even 
after,  shall  attempt  to  settle  difficulties  between  powers, 
or,  if  unsuccessful,  to  stop  them  as  soon  after  war  begins 
as  the  honor  of  the  nations  concerned  may  allow.  The 
Germans  greatly  favor  this  plan,  since  it  resembles  their 
tribunal  of  honor  (JElirengericM) ;  it  was  origmally  sug- 
gested to  us  by  our  secretary,  Dr.  Holls. 

In  the  evening,  at  six,  the  American  delegation  met. 
We  had  before  us  typewritten  copies  of  our  whole  ar- 
bitration project  as  elaborated  in  our  previous  sessions, 
and  sundry  changes  having  been  made,  most  of  them  ver- 
bal, the  whole,  after  considerable  discussion,  was  adopted. 

At  ten  I  left,  via  Hook  of  Hollaml  and  Harwich,  for 


THE  FIRST  HAGUP:  CONFEREXCE  31 

London,  arriving  about  ten  the  next  morning,  and  attend- 
insr  to  various  matters  of  business.  It  was  fortunate  for 
me  tliat  I  eould  have  for  this  purpose  an  ahnost  complete 
lull  in  our  proceedmgs,  the  first  and  second  committees  of 
the  conference  being  at  work  on  teclniical  matters,  and 
the  third  not  meeting  until  next  Monday. 

In  the  evening  I  went  to  the  Lyceum  Theater,  saw 
Henry  Irving  and  Ellen  Terry  in  Sardou's  "  Robes- 
pierre," and  for  the  first  time  in  my  life  was  woefully 
disappointed  in  them.  The  play  is  wretchedly  conceived, 
and  it  amazes  me  that  Sardou,  who  wrote  "  Thermidor," 
which  is  as  admirable  as  "  Robespierre "  is  miserable, 
could  ever  have  attached  liis  name  to  such  a  piece. 

For  the  wretchedness  of  its  form  there  is,  no  doubt, 
some  excuse  in  the  fact  that  it  has  been  done  into  Eng- 
lish, and  doubtless  cut,  pieced  and  altered  to  suit  the 
Lyceum  audiences ;  but  when  one  compares  the  con- 
spiracy part  of  it  with  a  properly  conceived  drama  in 
which  a  conspiracy  is  developed,  like  Schiller's  "  Fiesco," 
the  difference  is  enormously  in  favor  of  the  latter.  As 
literature  the  play  in  its  Englisli  dress  is  below  contempt. 

As  to  its  historical  contents,  Sardou  resorts  to  an  ex- 
pedient which,  although  quite  French  in  its  cliaracter, 
brings  the  whole  thing  down  to  a  lower  level  than  any- 
thing in  which  I  had  ever  seen  Irving  before.  The  cen- 
ter of  interest  is  a  young  royalist  who,  having  been  present 
with  his  mother  and  sister  at  the  roll  call  of  the  con- 
demned and  the  harrowing  scenes  resulting  therefrom, 
rushes  forth,  determined  to  assassinate  Robespierre,  but 
is  discovered  by  the  latter  to  be  his  long-lost  illegitimate 
son,  and  then  occur  a  series  of  mystifications  suited  only 
to  the  lowest  boulevard  melodrama. 


32  THE  FIRST   HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

As  to  the  action  of  the  piece,  the  only  thing  that 
showed  Irving's  great  ability  was  the  scene  in  the  forest 
of  Montmorency,  where,  as  Robespierre,  he  reveals  at 
one  moment,  in  his  talk  with  the  English  envoy,  his  am- 
bition, his  overestimate  of  himself,  his  suspicion  of  every- 
body and  everything,  his  willingness  to  be  cruel  to  any 
extent  in  order  to  baffle  possible  enemies ;  and  then, 
next  moment,  on  the  arrival  of  his  young  friends,  boys 
and  girls,  the  sentimental,  Rousseau  side  of  his  char- 
acter. This  transition  was  very  striking.  The  changes 
in  the  expression  of  Irving's  face  were  marvelous  —  as 
wonderful  as  those  in  his  Louis  XI ;  but  that  was  very 
nearly  all.  In  everything  else,  Coquelin,  as  I  had  seen 
him  in  Sarclou's  "  Thermiclor,"  was  infinitely  better. 

Besides  this,  the  piece  was,  in  general,  grotesquely 
unhistorical.  It  exhibits  Robespierre^s  colleagues  in  the 
Committee  of  Public  Safety  as  noisy  and  dirty  street 
blackguards.  Now,  bad  as  they  were,  they  were  not  at  all 
of  that  species,  nor  did  their  deliberations  take  place  in 
the  manner  depicted.  Rillaud-Varennes  is  represented 
as  a  drunken  vagabond  sitting  on  a  table  at  the  com- 
mittee and  declaiming.  He  was  not  this  at  all,  nor  was 
Tallien,  vile  as  he  was,  anything  like  the  blackguard 
shown   in   this  piece. 

The  linal  scene,  in  wliicii  IJobespicrre  is  brought  under 
accusation  by  the  Convention,  was  vastly  inferior  to  the 
same  thing  in  "  Thermidor '' ;  and,  what  was  worse,  in- 
stead of  paraphrasing  or  translating  the  speeches  of  Eil- 
laud-\^arennes,  Tallien  and  Robespici're,  which  lie  might 
have  found  in  the  Monifeur,  Sardou,  or  rather  Irving, 
makes  the  leading  characters  yell  harangues  very  nuu'li 
of  the  sort  ^\  liich  would  be  made  in  a  meetino-  of  drunken 


THE   FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE  33 

dock  laborers  to-day.  Irviiig's  part  in  tins  was  not  at 
all  well  done.  The  nnhistorical  details  now  eanie  thick 
and  fast,  among  them  his  putting  his  head  down  on 
the  table  of  tlie  tribune  as  a  sign  of  exliaustion,  and 
then,  at  the  close,  shooting  himself  in  front  of  the  tri- 
bunal. If  he  did  shoot  himself,  which  is  doubtful,  it 
was  neither  at  that  time  nor  in  that  place. 

But,  worst  of  all,  the  character  of  Robespierre  was 
made  far  too  melodramatic,  and  was  utterly  unworthy  of 
Irving,  whom,  in  all  his  other  pieces,  I  have  vastly  ad- 
mired. He  completely  misconceives  his  hero.  Instead  of 
representing  him  as,  from  first  to  last,  a  shallow  Rousseau 
sentimentalist,  with  the  proper  mixture  of  vanity,  sus- 
picion and  cruelty,  he  puts  into  him  a  great  deal  too 
much  of  the  ruffian,  which  was  not  at  all  in  Robes- 
pierre's character. 

The  most  striking  scene  in  the  whole  was  tlie  roll  call 
at  the  prison.  This  was  perhaps  better  than  that  in 
Sarclou's  "  Thermidor,''  and  the  tableaux  were  decidedly 
better. 

The  scene  at  the  ''  Festival  of  the  Supreme  Being " 
was  also  very  striking,  and  in  many  respects  historical ; 
but,  unless  I  am  greatly  mistaken,  the  performance  re- 
ferred to  did  not  take  place  as  represented,  but  in  the 
garden  directly  in  front  of  the  Tuileries.  The  family 
scene  at  the  house  of  Duplay  the  carpenter  was  exceed- 
ingly well  managed  ;  old  Duplay,  smoking  his  pipe,  listen- 
ing to  his  daughters  playing  on  a  spinet  and  singing 
sentimental  songs  of  the  Rousseau  period,  was  perfect. 
The  old  carpenter  and  his  family  evidently  felt  that  the 
golden  age  had  at  last  arrived  ;  that  humanity  was  at  the 
end  of  its  troubles :  and  that  the  world  was  indebted  for 


34  THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

it  all  to  their  lodger  Robespierre,  who  sat  in  the  midst 
of  them  reading,  writing  and  enjoying  the  coddling  and 
applause  lavished  upon  him.  And  he  and  they  were  to 
go  to  the  guillotine  withhi  a  week  ! 

Incidentally  there  came  a  little  touch  worthy  of  Sardou ; 
for,  as  Robespierre  reads  his  letters,  he  finds  one  from 
his  brother,  in  which  he  speaks  of  a  young  soldier  and 
revolutionist  of  ability  whose  acquaintance  he  has  just 
made,  whom  he  very  much  likes,  and  whose  republicanism 
he  thoroughly  indorses  —  one  Buonaparte.  This  might 
have  occurred,  and  very  likely  did  occur,  very  much  as 
shown  on  the  stage  ;  for  one  of  the  charges  which  nearly 
cost  Bonaparte  his  life  on  the  Ninth  Thermidor  was  that 
he  was  on  friendly  terms  with  the  younger  Robespierre, 
who  was  executed  with  his  more  famous  brother. 

On  the  whole,  the  play  was  very  disappointing.  It 
would  certainly  have  been  hissed  at  the  Porte  St.  jNIartin, 
and  probabl^y  at  any  other  Paris  theater. 

Juyie  1. 

Having  left  London  last  evening,  I  arrived  at  The 
Hague  early  this  morning  and  found,  to  my  great  satis- 
faction, that  the  subconnnittee  of  the  third  committee 
had  unanimously  adopted  the  American  plan  of  "  second- 
ing powers,'"  and  that  our  whole  general  plan  of  arbitra- 
tion will  be  to-day  in  print  and  translated  into  French  for 
presentation.  I  also  find  that  Sir  Julian  Pauncefote's 
arbitration  project  has  admirable  i)oiiits. 

The  first  article  in  Sir  Julian's  [)roposal  states  that, 
with  the  desire  to  facilitate  innaediate  recourse  to  arbi- 
tration by  nations  which  may  fail  to  adjust  by  dii^lo- 
matic  nec'otiations  differences  arising  between  them,  the 


THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFEREXCE  35 

signatory  powers  agree  to  organize  a  permanent  tribunal 
of  international  arbitration,  accessible  at  all  times,  to  be 
governed  by  a  code,  provided  by  this  conference,  so  far 
as  applicable  and  consistent  with  any  special  stipulations 
agreed  to  between  the  contesting  parties. 

Its  second  provision  is  the  establishment  of  a  permanent 
central  office,  where  the  records  of  the  tribunal  shall  be 
preserved  and  its  official  business  transacted,  with  a  per- 
manent secretary,  archivist  and  suitable  staff,  who  shall 
reside  on  the  spot.  This  office  shall  make  arrangements 
for  the  assembling  of  the  tribunal,  at  the  request  of 
contesting  parties. 

Its  third  provision  is  that  each  of  the  signatory  powers 
shall  transmit  the  names  of  two  persons  who  shall  be  rec- 
ognized in  their  own  country  as  jurists  or  publicists  of 
high  character  and  fitness,  and  wlio  shall  be  qualified 
to  act  as  judges.  These  persons  shall  be  members  of 
the  tribunal,  and  a  list  of  their  names  shall  be  recorded 
in  the  central  office.  In  case  of  death  or  retirement  of 
any  one  of  these,  tlie  vacancy  shall  be  filled  up  by  new 
appointment. 

Its  fourth  provision  is  that  any  of  the  signatory  powers 
desiring  to  have  ivc-ourse  to  the  tribunal  for  the  settle- 
ment of  differences  sliall  make  known  such  desire  to  the 
secretary  of  the  central  office,  who  shall  thereupon  fur- 
nish the  powers  concerned  with  a  list  of  the  members  of 
the  tribunal,  from  which  such  powers  may  select  such 
number  of  judges  as  they  may  think  best.  The  powers 
concerned  may  also,  if  they  think  fit,  adjoin  to  these 
judges  any  other  person,  although  his  name  may  not 
appear  on  the  list.  The  persons  so  selected  shall  consti- 
tute the  tribunal  for  the  purpose   of  such  arbitration, 


36  THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

and  shall  assemble  at  such  date  as  may  be  most  conven- 
ient for  the  litigants. 

The  tribunal  shall  ordinarily  hold  its  sessions  at ; 

but  it  shall  have  power  to  fix  its  place  of  session  else- 
where, and  to  change  the  same  from  time  to  time,  as 
circumstances  may  suggest. 

The  fifth  provision  is  that  any  power,  even  though 
not  represented  in  the  present  conference,  may  have 
recourse  to  the  tribunal  on  such  terms  as  may  be 
prescribed  by  the  regulations. 

Provision  sixth  :    The  government  of is  charged 

by  the  signatory  powers,  on  their  behalf,  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible after  the  conclusion  of  this  convention,  to  name  a 

permanent  council  of  admuiistration,  at ,  composed 

of  five  meml)ers  and  a  secretary.  This  council  shall  or- 
ganize and  establish  the  central  office,  which  shall  be 
under  its  control  and  direction.  It  shall  make  such  rules 
and  regulations  as  may  be  necessary  for  the  office  ;  it  shall 
dispose  of  all  questions  that  may  arise  in  relation  to  the 
workmg  of  the  tribunal,  or  which  may  be  referred  to  it 
by  the  central  office ;  it  shall  make  all  subordinate  ap- 
pointments, may  suspend  or  dismiss  all  employees,  and 
shall  fix  their  salaries  and  control  then-  expenditure.  This 
council  shall  select  its  president,  who  shall  have  a  casting 
vote.  The  renumeration  of  the  members  shall  be  fixed 
from  time  to  time  by  accord  between  the  signatory  powers. 

Provision  seventh  :  The  signatory  powers  agree  to  share 
among  them  the  expenses  pertahiing  to  the  administration 
of  the  central  oifice  and  the  council  of  a(hninistration ; 
but  the  expenses  incident  to  every  arbitration,  including 
the  I'cmuneration  of  the  arbiters,  shall  be  equally  borne 
by  the  contesting  powers. 


THE  FIRST  HAGUE  COXFEREXCE  37 

From  a  theoretical  point  of  view,  I  prefer  to  this  our 
American  plan  of  a  tribunal  permanently  in  session  :  the 
judges,  in  every  particular  case,  to  be  selected  from  this. 
Thus  would  be  provided  a  court  of  any  odd  number  be- 
tween tliree  and  nine,  as  the  contesting  powers  may  desire. 
But  from  the  practical  point  of  view,  even  though  the 
Russian  plan  of  requirmg  the  signatory  powers  to  send 
to  the  tribunal  a  multitude  of  smaller  matters,  such  as 
those  connected  with  the  postal  service,  etc.,  is  carried  out, 
the  great  danger  is  that  such  a  court,  sitting  constantly 
as  we  propose,  would,  for  some  years,  have  very  little  to 
do,  and  that  soon  we  should  have  demagogues  and  feather- 
brained "  reformers  "  ridiculing  them  as  "  useless,"  "  eat- 
ing their  heads  off,"  and  "  domg  nothing  "  ;  that  then 
demagogic  appeals  might  lead  one  nation  after  another  to 
withdraw  from  an  arrangement  involving  large  expense 
apparently  useless ;  and  in  view  of  this  latter  difficulty 
I  am  much  inclined  to  thmk  that  we  may,  under  our 
amended  instructions,  agree  to  support,  in  its  essential 
features  as  above  given,  the  British  proposal,  and,  with 
some  reservations,  the  code  proposed  by  the  Russians. 

Among  the  things  named  by  the  Russians  as  subjects 
which  the  agreeing  powers  must  submit  to  arbitration,  are 
those  relating  to  river  navigation  and  international  canals  ; 
and  this,  in  view  of  our  present  difficulties  in  Alaska  and 
in  the  matter  of  the  Isthmus  Canal,  we  can  hardly  agree 
to.  During  the  morning  Sir  Julian  came  in  and  talked 
over  our  plan  of  arbitration  as  well  as  his  own  and  that 
submitted  by  Russia.  He  said  that  he  had  seen  jNI.  de 
Staal,  and  that  it  was  agreed  between  them  that  the  latter 
should  send  Sir  Julian,  at  the  first  moment  possible,  an 
amalgamation  of  tlie  Russian  and  British  plans,  and  this 


23mS7 


38  THE  FIRST   HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

Sir  Julian  promised  that  he  would  l)rino-  to  us,  givuig  us 
a  chance  to  insert  any  features  from  our  own  plan  which, 
in  our  judgment,  might  be  important.  He  seemed  much 
encouraged,  as  we  all  are. 

Returning  to  our  rooms,  I  found  Count  xMiinster.  As 
usual,  he  was  very  interesting ;  and,  after  discussing  sun- 
dry features  of  the  Russian  plan,  he  told  one  or  two  rather 
good  stories.  He  said  that  during  his  stay  in  St.  Peters- 
burg as  minister,  early  in  the  reign  of  Alexander  H,  he 
had  a  very  serious  quarrel  with  Prince  Gorchakoff,  the 
minister  of  foreign  affairs,  who  afterward  became  the 
famous  chancellor  of  the  empire. 

Count  jMlinster  had  received  one  day  from  a  professor 
at  Cottingen  a  letter  stating  that  a  young  Cerman  savant, 
traveling  for  scientific  purposes  in  Russia,  had  been  seized 
and  treated  as  a  prisoner,  without  any  proper  cause  what- 
ever ;  tliat,  while  he  was  engaged  in  his  peaceful  botaniz- 
ing, a  police  officer,  who  was  takuig  a  gang  of  criminals  to 
Siberia,  had  come  along,  and  one  of  his  prisoners  having 
escaped,  this  officer,  in  order  to  avoid  censure,  had  seized 
the  young  savant,  quietly  clapped  the  number  of  the 
missing  man  on  his  l)ack,  [)ut  liim  in  with  the  gang  of 
prisoners,  and  carried  him  oft"  along  with  the  rest ;  so 
that  he  was  now  held  as  a  convict  in  Siberia.  The  count 
put  the  letter  in  his  pocket,  thinking  that  he  might  have 
an  opportunity  to  use  it,  and  a  day  or  two  afterward  his 
chance  came.  AValking  on  the  quay,  he  met  the  Emj)eror 
(Alexander  H),  wlio  greeted  him  heartily,  and  said,  "  Let 
me  walk  with  you."  After  walking  and  talking  some 
time,  the  count  told  the  story  of  the  young  German, 
whereupon  the  Emperor  asked  for  proofs  of  its  trutli. 
xVt  this  Miiustcr  pulled  the  letter  out  of  his  pocket  :  and, 


THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE  39 

both  having  seated  themselves  on  a  beiiuh  at  the  side 
of  the  walk,  the  Emperor  read  it.  On  finishing  it,  the 
Emperor  said :  "  Snch  a  thing  as  this  can  happen  only 
m  Rnssia."  That  very  afternoon  he  sent  a  special  police 
squad,  posthaste,  all  the  way  to  Siberia,  ordering  them 
to  find  the  young  German  and  bring  him  back  to  St. 
Petersburg. 

Next  day  Count  IVIunster  called  at  the  Foreign  Office 
on  current  business,  when  Gorchakoff  came  at  him  in  a 
great  rage,  asking  him  by  wliat  right  he  communicated 
directly  with  the  Emperor ;  and  insisting  that  he  had  no 
business  to  give  a  letter  du-ectly  to  the  Emperor,  that  it 
ought  to  have  gone  through  the  Foreign  Office.  Gor- 
chakoff reproached  the  count  bitterly  for  this  departure 
from  elementary  diplomatic  etiquette.  At  this  iMunster 
replied :  "  I  gave  the  letter  to  the  Emperor  be(;ause  he 
asked  me  for  it,  and  I  did  not  give  it  to  you  because  I 
knew  perfectly  well  that  you  would  pigeonhole  it  and  the 
Emperor  would  never  hear  of  it.  1  concede  much  in  mak- 
ing any  answer  at  all  to  your  talk,  which  seems  to  me  of 
a  sort  not  usual  between  gentlemen."  At  this  Gorcha- 
koff was  much  milder,  and  finally  almost  obsequious, 
becommg  apparently  one  of  Miinster's  devoted  friends, 
evidently  thinking  that,  as  Mlinster  had  gained  the  confi- 
dence of  the  Emperor,  he  was  a  man  to  be  cultivated. 

The  sequel  to  the  story  was  also  mteresting.  The 
policemen,  after  their  long  journey  to  Siberia,  found  the 
young  German  and  brought  him  to  St.  Petersburg,  where 
the  Emperor  received  him  very  cordially  and  gave  him 
twenty  thousand  rubles  as  an  indemnity  for  the  wrong 
done  him.  The  young  savant  told  jMlinster  that  he  had 
not  been  badly  treated,  that  he  had  been  assigned  a  very 


40  THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

pleasant  little  cottage,  and  had  perfect  fre6<^loin  to  pursue 
his  scientific  researches. 

On  my  talking  with  the  count  about  certain  Russian 
abuses,  and  maintaining  that  Russia,  at  least  in  court 
circles,  had  improved  greatly  under  Alexander  III  as 
regarded  corruption,  he  said  that  he  feared  she  was  now 
going  back,  and  he  then  repeated  a  remark  made  by  the 
old  (irand  Duke  Michael,  brother  of  Alexander  II,  who 
said  that  if  any  Russian  were  intrusted  with  the  official 
care  of  a  canary  he  would  immediately  set  up  and  main- 
tain a  coach  and  pair  out  of  it. 

At  six  o'clock  our  American  delegation  met  and  heard 
reports,  especially  from  Captain  !Mahan  and  Captain  Cro- 
zier,  with  reference  to  the  doings  in  the  subcommittees. 
Captain  Mahan  reported  that  he  had  voted  against  for- 
bidding asphyxiating  bombs,  etc.,  evidently  with  the  idea 
that  such  a  provision  would  prove  to  be  rather  harmful 
than  helpful  to  the  cause  of  peace. 

Captain  Crozier  reported  that  his  subcommittee  of  com- 
mittee No.  2  had,  at  its  recent  meeting,  tried  to  take  up 
the  exemption  of  private  property  from  seizure  on  the 
high  seas  in  time  of  war,  but  had  been  declared  out  of 
order  by  the  chairman,  De  ^lartens,  the  leading  Russian 
delegate,  who  seems  determined  to  prevent  the  subject 
c(miing  before  the  conference.  The  question  before  our 
American  delegation  now  was,  Shall  we  try  to  push 
this  American  proposal  before  the  subcommittee  of  the 
second  committee,  or  before  the  entire  conference  at  a 
later  period?  and  the  general  ()})ini()n  was  in  favor  of 
the  latter  course.  It  was  not  tliought  best  to  delay  the 
arbitration  plan  l)y  its  introduction  at  present. 

In  the  evening  dined  with  Minister  Newel,  and  had 


THE  FIRST   HAGUE  CONFERENCE  41 

a  very  interesting  talk  with  ^"an  Karnebeek,  who  had 
already  favorably  impressed  me  by  his  clear-headedness 
and  straightforwardness  ;  also  with  M.  Asser,  member 
of  the  Dutch  Council  of  State,  and  M.  Ivahusen,  member 
of  the  Upper  Chamber  of  the  States  General,  both  of 
whom  are  influential  delegates. 

All  three  of  these  men  spoke  strongly  in  favor  of  our 
plan  for  the  exemption  of  private  property  on  the  high 
seas,  Van  Karnebeek  with  especial  earnestness.  He  said 
that,  looking  merely  at  the  material  interests  of  the  Neth- 
erlands, he  might  very  well  favor  the  retention  of  the 
present  system,  since  his  country  is  little  likely  to  go  into 
war,  and  is  certain  to  profit  by  the  carrying  trade  in  case 
of  any  conflict  between  the  great  powers  ;  that,  of  course, 
under  such  circumstances,  a  large  amount  of  connnerce 
would  come  to  Holland  as  a  neutral  power ;  but  that 
it  was  a  question  of  right  and  of  a  proper  development 
of  international  law,  and  that  he,  as  well  as  the  two 
other  gentlemen  above  named,  was  very  earnestly  in 
favor  of  joint  action  by  the  powers  who  are  in  favor  of 
our  propo>sal.  He  thought  that  the  important  thing  just 
now  is  to  secure  the  cooperation  of  Germany,  which 
seems  to  be  at  the  parting  of  the  ways,  and  undecided 
which  to  take. 

In  the  course  of  the  evening  one  of  my  European  col- 
leagues, who  is  especially  familiar  with  the  inner  history 
of  the  calling  of  the  conference,  told  me  that  the  reason 
why  Professor  Stengel  was  made  a  delegate  was  not 
that  he  wrote  tlie  book  in  praise  of  war  and  depreciating 
arbitration,  which  caused  his  appointment  to  be  so  un- 
favorably commented  upon,  but  because,  as  an  eminent 
professor  of  international  law,  he  represented  IJavaria; 


42  THE   FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

and  that  as  Bavaria,  though  represented  at  St.  Peters- 
burg, was  not  invited,  it  was  thought  very  essential  that 
a  well-knowii  man  from  that  kingdom  should  be  put 
mto  the  general  German  delegation. 

On  my  asking  why  Brazil,  though  represented  at  St. 
Petersburg,  was  not  invited,  he  answered  that  Brazil  was 
mvited,  but  showed  no  desire  to  be  represented.  On  my 
askmg  him  if  he  supposed  this  was  because  other  South 
American  powers  were  not  invited,  he  said  that  he 
thought  not ;  that  it  was  rather  its  own  indifference  and 
carelessness,  arising  from  the  present  unfortunate  state 
of  government  in  that  country.  On  my  saying  that  the 
Emperor  Dom  Pedro,  m  his  time,  would  have  taken  the 
opportunity  to  send  a  strong  delegation,  he  said,  "  Yes, 
he  certamly  would  have  done  so ;  but  the  present  gov- 
ernment is  a  poor  sort  of  thmg." 

I  also  had  a  talk  with  one  of  the  most  eminent  publi- 
cists of  the  Netherlands,  on  the  questions  dividing  parties 
in  this  country,  telling  him  that  I  found  it  hard  to  under- 
stand the  line  of  cleavage  between  them.  He  answered 
that  it  is,  hi  the  main,  a  line  between  religious  conserva- 
tives and  liberals  -.  the  conservatives  embracing  the  Roman 
Catholics  and  high-orthodox  Protestants,  and  the  liberals 
those  of  more  advanced  opinions.  He  said  tliat  socialism 
plays  no  great  part  m  Holland ;  that  the  number  of  its 
representatives  is  very  small  compared  with  that  in  many 
European  states  ;  that  the  questions  on  which  parties  di- 
vide are  mainly  those  m  which  clerical  ideas  are  more 
or  less  prominent ;  that  the  liberal  party,  if  it  keeps  to- 
gether, is  nuich  the  stronger  party  of  the  two,  but  that 
it  suffers  greatly  from  its  cli(pies  and  factions. 

On    returning   liome   after   dinner,   I  found  a  cipher 


THE  FIRST  II A(a'E  COXFERENCE  43 

dispatch  from  the  Secretary  of  State  informing  us  that 
President  Mclvinley  thinks  that  our  American  commis- 
sion ought  not  to  urge  any  proposal  for  '''  secondmg 
powers  "  ;  tliat  he  fears  lest  it  may  block  the  way  of  the 
arbitration  proposals.  This  shows  that  imperfect  reports 
have  reached  the  President  and  his  cabinet.  The  fact  is 
that  the  proposal  of  "seconding  powers"  was  warmly  wel- 
comed by  the  subcommittee  when  it  was  presented  ;  that 
the  members  very  generally  telegraphed  home  to  their 
governments,  and  at  once  received  orders  to  support  it ; 
that  it  was  passed  by  a  unanimous  vote  of  the  subcommit- 
tee ;  and  that  its  strongest  advocates  were  the  men  who 
are  most  in  favor  of  an  arbitration  plan.  So  far  from  in- 
juring the  prospects  of  arbitration,  it  has  increased  them  ; 
it  is  very  generally  spoken  of  as  a  victory  for  our  delega- 
tion, and  lias  increased  respect  for  our  country,  and  for 
anything  we  may  hereafter  present. 

June  2. 

This  morning  we  sent  a  cipher  telegram  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  State,  embodying  the  facts  above  stated. 

The  shoals  of  telegrams,  reports  of  proceedings  of  so- 
cieties, hortatory  letters,  crankish  proposals  and  peace 
pamphlets  from  America  continue.  One  of  the  telegrams 
which  came  late  last  night  was  pathetic  ;  it  declared  that 
three  millions  of  Christian  Endeavorers  bade  us  "  (xod- 
speed,"  etc.,  etc. 

Durmg  the  morning  De  Martens,  Low,  Holls  and  my- 
self had  a  very  thoroughgoing  discussion  of  the  Russian, 
British  and  American  arbitration  [)lans.  We  found  the 
eminent  Kussian  under  very  curious  misapprehensions  re- 
garding some  minor  points,  one  of  them  being  that  he  had 


44  THE  FIRST  IIAGUP]  CONFERENCE 

mistaken  the  signification  of  our  word  ''  publicist "' ;  and 
we  were  especially  surprised  to  find  his  use  of  the  French 
word  ''  publiciste  "  so  broad  that  it  would  include  M.  Henri 
Rochefort,  Mr.  Stead  or  any  newspaper  writer;  and  he  was 
quite  as  surprised  to  find  that  with  us  it  would  mclude 
only  such  men  as  Grotius,  Wheaton,  Calvo  and  himself. 

After  a  long  and  intricate  discussion  Ave  separated  on 
very  good  terms,  having  made,  I  think,  decided  progress 
toward  fusing  all  three  arbitration  plans  into  one  which 
shall  embody  the  merits  of  all. 

One  difficulty  we  found,  of  which  neitlier  our  State 
Department  nor  ourselves  had  ])een  fully  aware.  Our 
orighial  plan  required  that  the  judges  for  the  arbitration 
tribunal  should  be  nominated  by  the  highest  courts  of  the 
respective  nations ;  but  De  Martens  showed  us  that  Russia 
has  no  highest  court  in  our  sense  of  the  word.  Then,  too, 
there  is  Austria-Hungary,  which  has  two  supreme  courts 
of  equal  authority.  This  clause,  therefore,  we  arranged 
to  alter,  though  providing  that  the  original  might  stand 
as  regards  countries  possessing  supreme  courts. 

At  lunch  we  had  Baron  de  Bildt,  Swedish  minister  at 
Rome  and  chief  of  the  Swedish  delegation  at  the  confer- 
ence, and  Baron  de  Bille,  Danish  minister  at  London  and 
chief  delegate  from  Denmark.  De  liille  declared  himself 
averse  to  a  permanent  tril)unal  to  be  in  constant  session, 
on  the  ground  that,  having  so  little  to  do,  it  would  be  in 
danger  of  becoming  an  object  of  derision  to  tlie  press  and 
peoples  of  the  world. 

We  were  all  glad  to  find,  upon  the  arrival  of  the 
I^ondon  Times,  that  our  arbitration  project  seemed  to 
be  receiving  extensive  approval,  and  various  telegrams 
from  America  (hu'iiig  the  day  indicated  tlu;  same  thing. 


THE   FIRST  HAGUP:  CONFERENCE  45 

It  looks  more  and  more  as  if  we  are  to  accomplish 
something.  The  only  thing  in  sight  calculated  to  throw 
a  cloud  over  the  future  is  the  attitude  of  the  German 
press  against  the  whole  business  here  ;  the  most  virulent 
in  its  attacks  being  the  high-Lutheran  conservative  — 
and  religious !  —  journal  in  Berlin,  the  K^renz-Zeifun//. 
Still,  it  is  pleasant  to  see  that  eminent  newspaper  find, 
for  a  time,  some  other  object  of  denunciation  than  the 
United  States. 

'Time  3. 

In  the  afternoon  drove  to  Scheveningen  and  took  tea 
with  Count  Miinster  and  his  daughter.  He  was  some- 
what pessimistic,  as  usual,  but  came  out  very  strongly  in 
favor  of  the  American  view  as  regards  exemption  of  pri- 
vate property  on  the  high  seas.  Whether  this  is  really 
because  Germany  would  derive  profit  from  it,  or  because 
she  thinks  this  question  a  serviceable  entering  wedge  be- 
tween tlie  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  there  is  no 
telling  at  present.  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  our  hopes  regard- 
ing it  are  to  be  daslied,  so  far  as  the  present  conference 
is  concerned.  Sundry  neAvspaper  letters  and  articles  in 
the  Times  show  clearly  that  the  English  Government  is 
strongly  opposed  to  dealing  with  it  here  and  now ;  and 
as  France  and  llussia  take  the  same  position,*  there  is  no 
liope  for  any  action,  save  such  as  we  can  take  to  keep 
the  subject  alive  and  to  secure  attention  to  it  by  some 
future  conference. 


Ill 

June  4. 

WE  have  just  had  an  experience  which  "  adds  to  the 
gayety  of  nations."  Some  days  since,  representa- 
tives of  what  is  called  ''  the  Young  Turkish  party  "  ap- 
peared and  asked  to  l)e  heard.  They  received,  generally, 
the  cold  shoulder,  mainly  because  the  internal  condition 
of  Turkey  is  not  one  of  the  things  whicli  the  conference 
was  asked  to  discuss;  but  also  because  there  is  a  suspi- 
cion that  these  ''  Young  Turks"  are  enabled  to  live  in  lux- 
ury at  Paris  by  blackmailing  the  Sultan,  and  that  their 
zeal  for  reforni  becomes  fervid  whenever  their  funds  run 
low,  and  cools  whenever  a  remittance  comes  from  the 
Bosporus.  But  at  last  some  of  us  decided  to  give  them 
a  hearing,  informally  :  the  main  ()l)ject  being  to  get  rid  of 
them.  At  the  time  appointed,  the  delegation  appeared  in 
evening  dress,  and,  having  been  ushered  into  the  room, 
the  spokesman  began  as  follows,  very  impressively : 
"  Your  Excellencies,  ve  are  ze  Young  Turkeys." 
Tliis  was  too  much  for  most  of  us,  and  I  think  that, 
duiiiig  oni'whole  stay  at  The  Hague  thus  far,  we  have 
never  undertaken  anything  more  difficult,  physically,  than 
to  keep  our  faces  straight  during  the  harangue  whicli 
followed. 

Later,  we  went  witli  nearly  all  tlie  other  iiieml)ei's  of 
the  confereiu'c  to  JIaarlem,  in  a  special  train,  by  invita- 
tion of  the  burgomaster  and  town  council,  to  the  '''  Fete 
llippi(|ue"  and  the  "Fete  des  Fleurs."    We  were  treated 

4U 


THE  FIRST   HAGUE  CONFERENCE  47 

very  .well  indeed,  refreshments  being  served  on  the 
grand  stand  during  the  performances,  which  consisted 
of  hurdle  races,  etc.,  for  which  I  cared  nothing,  fol- 
lowed by  a  procession  of  peasants  in  old  cliaises  of 
various  periods,  and  in  the  costumes  of  the  various  prov- 
inces of  the  Netherlands,  Avhich  interested  me  much. 
The  whole  closed  with  a  long  train  (jf  fine  ecjuipages 
superbly  decorated  with  flowers. 

Discussing  the  question  of  the  immunity  of  private 
property,  not  contraband  of  war,  on  the  high  seas,  I  find 
that  the  main  argument  which  our  opponents  are  now 
using  is  that,  even  if  tlie  principle  were  conceded,  new 
and  troublesome  questions  would  arise  as  to  what  really 
constitutes  contraband  of  war ;  that  ships  themselves 
would  undoubtedly  be  considered  as  contraband,  since 
they  can  be  used  in  conveying  troops,  coal,  supplies,  etc. 

June  5. 

Having  given  up  the  morning  of  the  oth  mainly  to 
work  on  plans  of  arbitration,  mediation  and  tlie  like,  I 
went  to  the  meeting,  at  the  ''  House  in  the  AVood,"  of 
the  tliird  great  ccnnmittee  of  the  conference  —  namely, 
that  on  arbitration. 

The  session  went  off  satisfactorily,  our  duty  being  to 
pass  upon  the  report  from  the  subcommittee*\vhich  had 
put  the  various  propositions  into  shape  for  our  discussion. 
The  report  was  admirably  presented  by  M.  Descamps, 
and,  after  considerable- discussion  of  details,  was  adopted 
in  all  essential  features.  The  matters  tlius  discussed  and 
accepted  for  presentation  to  the  conference  as  a  whole 
related : 

(1)  To  a  plan  for  tendering  ''  good  offices." 


48  THE  FIRST   HAGUE   CONFEREXCE 

(2)  To  a  plan  for  examining  into  international  differ- 
ences. 

(3)  To  the  "  special  mediation  "  plan. 

The  last  was  exceedingly  well  received,  and  our  dele- 
gation has  obtained  much  credit  for  it.  It  is  the  plan  of 
allowing  any  two  nations  drifting  into  war  to  apj)oint 
*'  seconding  nations,"  who,  like  "  seconds "  hi  a  duel, 
shall  attempt  to  avert  the  conflict ;  and,  if  this  be  un- 
successful, shall  continue  acting  in  the  same  capacity, 
and  endeavor  to  arrest  the  conflict  at  the  earliest  moment 
possible. 

Very  general  good  feeling  was  shown,  and  much  en- 
couragement derived  from  the  fact  that  these  prelimi- 
nary matters  could  be  dealt  ^\'ith  in  so  amicable  and 
businesslike  a  spirit. 

Before  the  meeting  1  took  a  lono-  walk  in  the  o-arden 

o  o  o 

back  of  the  palace  with  various  gentlemen,  among  them 
Mr.  van  Karnebeek,  who  discussed  admirably  with  me 
the  (question  of  the  exemption  of  private  property  from 
seizure  on  the,  high  seas.  lie  agreed  with  me  that  even 
if  the  extreme  doctrine  now  contended  for  —  namely, 
that  which  maizes  shi])s,  coal,  provisions  and  ^^ery  nearly 
everything  else,  conlrabaiid  —  be  pi'csscd,  still  a,  tii'st  step, 
such  as  tlie  exemption  of  private  property  from  seizure, 
would  l)e^none  the  h-ss  wise,  leaving  the  subordinate 
(jueslions  to  b(^  dealt  with  as  they  arise. 

I  afterwards  called  with  Dr.  IIolls  at  the  house  of  the 
burgomaster  of  The  Hague,  and  thanked  him  for  his 
kindness  in  tendering  us  the  cont-ert  last  Saturday,  and 
for  various  other  marks  of  consideration. 

On  tlie  whole,  matters  continue  to  look  encouraging 
as  reu'ards  l)oth  mediation  and  arbitration. 


THE  F1U8T  HAGUE   CONFERENCE  49 

June  6. 

In  the  mornmg  Sir  Julian  Pauncefote  called,  and  again 
went  over  certain  details  in  the  American,  British  and 
Russian  plans  of  arbitration,  discussing  some  matters  to 
be  stricken  out  and  others  to  be  inserted.  He  declared 
his  readiness  to  strike  out  a  feature  of  his  plan  to  which 
from  the  first  I  have  felt  a  very  great  objection — namely, 
that  which,  after  the  tribunal  is  constituted,  allows  the 
contesting  parties  to  call  into  it  and  mix  with  it  persons 
simply  chosen  by  tiie  contestants  ad  hoc.  This  seems  to 
me  a  dilution  of  the  idea  of  a  permanent  tribunal,  and  a 
means  of  delay  and  of  complications  which  may  prove 
unfortunate.  It  would  certainly  be  said  that  if  the  con- 
testants were  to  be  allowed  to  name  two  or  more  judges 
from  outside  the  tribunal,  they  might  just  as  well  nomi- 
nate all,  and  thus  save  the  expense  attendant  upon  a 
regularly  constituted  international  court  chosen  by  the 
various  governments. 

Later  in  the  day  I  wrote  a  private  letter  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  State  suggesting  tliat  our  American  delegation 
be  authorized  to  lay  a  wreath  of  silver  and  gold  upon 
the  toml)  of  Grotius  at  Delft,  not  only  as  a  tribute  to 
the  man  who  set  in  motion  the  ideas  which,  nearly  three 
hundred  years  later,  have  led  to  the  assembluig  of  this 
conference,  but  as  an  indication  of  our  gratitude  to  the 
Netherlands  Government  for  its  hospitalit}*  and  the  ad- 
mirable provision  it  has  made  for  our  work  here,  and 
also  as  a  sign  of  good  will  toward  the  older  govern- 
ments of  the  world  on  the  occasion  of  their  first  meet- 
ing with  delegates  from  the  New  World,  in  a  conference 
treatmg  of  matters  most  important  to  all  nations. 

In  the  evening  to  Mr.  van  Karnebeek's  reception,  and 


50  THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

there  met  ^h:  liaffaloviteli,  one  of  the  Russian  secre- 
taries of  the  conference,  who,  as  councilor  of  the  Russian 
Empire  and  corresponding  member  of  the  French  Insti- 
tute, has  a  European  reputation,  and  urged  him  to  aid 
hi  striking  out  the  clause  in  the  plan  which  admits  judges 
other  than  those  of  the  court.  jNIy  hope  is  that  it  will 
disappear  in  the  subcommittee  and  not  come  up  in  the 
general  meeting  of  the  third  great  connnittee. 

June  S. 

The  American  delegation  in  the  afternoon  discussed  at 
length  the  proposals  relatmg  to  the  Brussels  Conference 
rules  for  the  more  humane  carrying  on  of  war.  Consid- 
erable difference  of  opinion  has  arisen  in  the  section  of 
the  conference  m  which  the  preliminary  debates  are  held, 
and  Captain  Crozier,  our  representative,  has  been  in  some 
doubt  as  to  the  ground  to  be  taken  between  these  oppos- 
mg  views.  On  one  side  are  those  who  think  it  best  to  go 
at  considerable  length  into  more  or  less  minute  restrictions 
upon  the  conduct  of  invaders  and  invaded.  On  the  other 
side,  M.  Beernaert  of  Belgium,  one  of  the  tAvo  most  emi- 
nent men  from  that  country,  and  others,  take  the  ground 
that  it  would  be  better  to  leave  the  whole  matter  to  the 
general  development  of  humanity  in  international  law. 
M.  de  Marteas  insists  that  now  is  the  time  to  settle  the 
matter,  rather  than  leave  it  to  individuals  who,  in  time 
of  war,  are  lilvcly  to  be  more  or  less  exasperated  by  ac- 
counts of  atrocities  and  t(j  have  no  adequate  time  for 
deciding  upon  a  policy.  After  considerable  discussion 
by  our  delegation,  the  whole  matter  went  over. 

In  the  evening  to  a  great  i-eception  at  the  house  of  Sir 
Henry  Howard,  liritish  minister  at  this  court.    It  was 


THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE  51 

very  brilliant,  and  the  whole  afforded  an  example  of 
Jolm  BulFs  good  sense  in  providing  for  his  representa- 
tives abroad,  and  enabling  them  to  exercise  a  social 
influence  on  the  communities  where  they  are  stationed, 
which  rapidly  becomes  a  political  influence  with  the  gov- 
ernments to  which  they  are  accredited.  Sir  Henry  is 
provided  with  a  large,  attractive  house,  means  to  enter- 
tain amply,  and  has  been  kept  in  the  service  long  enough 
to  know  everybody  and  to  become  experienced  in  the 
right  way  of  getting  at  the  men  he  wishes  to  influ- 
ence, and  of  doing  the  things  his  government  needs  to 
have  done.  Througliout  the  whole  world  this  is  John 
Bull's  wise  way  of  doing  things.  At  every  capital  I  have 
visited,  including  Washington,  Constantinople,  St. Peters- 
burg, Rome,  Paris,  Berlin  and  Vienna,  the  British  repre- 
sentative is  a  man  who  has  been  selected  with  reference 
to  his  fitness,  kept  in  the  service  long  enough  to  give 
him  useful  experience,  and  provided  with  a  good,-  commo- 
dious house  and  the  means  to  exercise  social  and,  there- 
fore, political  influence.  The  result  is  that,  although,  in 
every  country  in  the  world,  orators  and  editors  are  al- 
ways howling  at  John  Bull,  he  everywhere  has  his  way : 
to  use  our  vernacular,  he  "  gets  there,"  and  can  laugh  in 
his  sleeve  at  the  speeches  against  him  m  public  bodies, 
and  at  the  diatribes  against  him  in  newspapers.  The 
men  who  are  loudest  in  such  attacks  are  generally  the 
most  delighted  to  put  their  legs  under  the  British  am- 
bassador's mahogany,  or  to  take  their  daughters  to  his 
receptions  and  balls,  and  then  quietly  to  follow  the  gen- 
eral line  of  conduct  which  he  favors. 


52  THE  FIRST   HAGUE  COXFERENCE 

June  0. 

In  the  m(3rning  an  interesting  visit  from  M.  de  Staal, 
president  of  the  conference.  We  discussed  arbitration 
plans,  Brussels  rules  and  Geneva  rules,  and,  finally,  our 
social  debts  to  the  Dutch  authorities. 

As  to  the  general  prospects  of  arbitration,  he  expressed 
the  belief  that  we  can,  by  amalgamating  the  British, 
Russian  and  American  plans,  produce  a  good  result. 

During  the  day,  many  members  of  the  conference  hav- 
ing gone  to  Rotterdam  to  see  the  welcoming  of  the 
Queen  in  that  city,  I  took  up,  with  especial  care,  the 
Brussels  rules  for  the  conduct  of  war,  and  the  amend- 
ments of  them  now  proposed  in  the  conference,  some  of 
which  have  provoked  considerable  debate.  The  more  I 
read  tlie  proposals  now  made,  the  more  admirable  most 
of  them  seem  to  be,  and  the  more  it  seems  to  me  that 
we  ought,  with  a  few  exceptions,  to  adopt  them.  Great 
Britain  declines  to  sanction  them  as  part  of  international 
law,  but  still  agrees  to  adopt  tliem  as  a  general  basis  for 
her  conduct  in  time  of  war ;  and  even  this  would  be  a 
good  thing  for  us,  if  we  cannot  induce  our  government 
to  go  to  tli(^  length  of  making  them  fully  binding. 

At  six  o'clock  \)v.  Molls,  who  represents  us  upon  the 
subcommittee  on  arbitration,  came  in  with  most  discour- 
aging lunvs.  It  now  appears  that  the  (iemian  Emperor 
is  determined  to  oppose  the  whole  scheme  of  arbitration, 
and  will  liave  nothing  to  do  with  any  plan  for  a  regular 
tribunal,  whether  as  given  in  the  British  or  the  American 
scheme.  This  news  comes  i'rom  various  sources,  and  is 
conlirmed  by  the  fact  that,  in  the  subconuuittee,  one  of 
the  German  delegates.  Professor  Zorn  of  Kihiigsberg, 
who  had  l»ecome  very  earnest  in  behalf  of  arl:)i(ration.  now 


THE  FIRST  HAGUE  C'OXFEREXCE  53 

says  that  he  may  not  be  able  to  vote  for  it.  There  are 
also  signs  that  the  German  Emperor  is  influencing  the 
minds  of  liis  allies,  —  the  sovereigns  of  Austria,  Italy, 
Turkey  and  Roumania,  —  leading  them  to  oppose  it. 

Curiously  enough,  in  spite  of  tin?'.  Count  Nigra,  tlie 
Italian  ambassador  at  Vienna  and  iieavl  of  the  Italian 
delegation,  made  a  vigorous  speech  showing  the  impor- 
tance of  the  work  m  which  the  committee  is  engaged, 
urging  that  the  plan  be  perfected,  and  seeming  to  indi- 
cate that  he  will  go  on  with  the  representatives  who 
favor  it.  This,  commg  from  perhaps  the  most  earnest  ally 
of  Germany,  is  noteworthy. 

At  the  close  of  the  session  Sir  Julian  Pauncefote  in- 
formed Dr.  Holls  that  he  was  about  to  telegraph  his 
government  regarding  the  undoubted  efforts  of  the  Ger- 
man Emperor  upon  the  sovereigns  above  named,  and  I 
decided  to  cable  our  State  Department,  informing  them 
fully  as  to  this  change  in  tlie  condition  of  affairs. 

At  eight  went  to  the  dinner  of  our  minister,  Mr. 
Newel,  and  found  there  three  ambassadors,  De  Staal, 
Miinster  and  Pauncefote,  as  well  as  M.  Leon  Bourgeois, 
president  of  the  French  delegation  ;  Sir  Henry  Howard, 
the  British  minister  ;  Baron  de  Bildt,  the  Swedish  min- 
ister ;  and  some  leading  Netherlands  statesmen.  Had  a 
long  talk  with  M.  de  Staal  and  with  Sir  Julian  Paunce- 
fote regarding  the  state  of  things  revealed  this  afternoon 
in  the  subcommittee  on  arbitration.  M.  de  Staal  has  called 
a  meeting  of  the  heads  of  delegations  for  Saturday  after- 
noon. Both  he  and  Sir  Julian  are  evidently  much  vexed 
by  the  unfortunate  turn  thhigs  have  taken.  The  latter 
feels,  as  I  do,  that  the  only  thing  to  be  done  is  to  go  on 
and  make  the  plan  for  arbitration  as  perfect  as  possible, 


54  THE  FIRST  IIAGUP:  CONFERENCE 

letting  those  of  the  powers  who  are  willing  to  do  so  sigi. 
it.  I  assured  him  and  De  Staal  that  Ave  of  the  United 
States  would  stand  by  them  to  tlie  last  in  the  matter. 

Late  in  the  evening  went  to  a  reception  of  j\I.  de  Beau- 
fort, the  Netherlands  minister  of  foreign  affau"s,  and 
discussed  current  matters  with  various  people,  among 
them  Count  Nigra,  whom  I  thanked  for  his  eloquent 
speech  in  the  afternoon,  and  Baron  de  Bildt,  who  feels, 
as  I  do,  that  the  right  thmg  for  \is  is  to  go  on,  no  mat- 
ter who  falls  away. 

Jntie  10. 

This  morning  I  gave  to  studies  of  the  various  reports 
sent  in  from  the  subcommittees,  especially  tliose  on  ar- 
bitration and  on  the  Brussels  Conference  rules.  Both 
have  intensely  interested  me,  my  main  attention  being, 
of  course,  centered  on  the  former;  but  the  Brussels  rules 
seem  to  me  of  much  greater  importance  now  than  at 
first,  and  my  hope  is  that  we  shall  not  only,  devise  a 
good  working  plan  of  arbitration,  l)ut  greatly  humanize 
the  laws  of  war. 

At  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  met  the  four  other 
ambassadors  and  two  or  three  otlier  heads  of  delegations, 
at  tlie  rooms  of  M.  de  Staal,  to  discuss  the  question  of 
I'chixing  tlie  rules  of  secrecy  as  regards  the  proceed- 
hiofs  of  committees,  etc.  The  whole  orio-hial  Russian 
plan  of  maintaining  aljsolute  secrecy  has  collapsed,  just 
as  the  representatives  from  constitutional  countries  in 
the  begiiniing  said  it  would.  Every  day  there  are  pub- 
lished minute  accounts  in  Dutch,  French  and  English 
journals  which  show  that,  in  s(mie  way,  their  represen- 
tatives obtain  enough  information  to  enable  them,  with 


THE  FIRST   HAGUE  COXFEREXCE  55 

such  additional  things  as  they  can  imagine,  to  make  read- 
able reports.  The  result  is  that  various  gentlemen  in 
the  conference  who  formerly  favored  a  policy  of  com- 
plete secrecy  find  themselves  credited  with  speeches  which 
they  did  not  make,  and  which  they  dislike  to  be  considered 
capable  of  making. 

After  a  great  deal  of  talk,  it  was  decided  to  authorize 
the  chairman  of  each  committee  to  give  to  the  press  com- 
plete reports,  so  far  as  possible,  keeping  in  the  back- 
ground the  part  taken  by  individuals. 

At  six  the  American  delegation  met,  and  the  subject 
of  our  instructions  regarding  the  presentation  of  the 
American  view  of  the  immunity  of  private  property  on 
the  high  seas  in  time  of  war  was  taken  up.  It  was  de- 
cided to  ask  some  of  the  leading  supporters  of  this  view^ 
to  meet  us  at  luncheon  at  12.30  on  Monday,  in  order  to 
discuss  the  best  way  of  overcoming  the  Russian  plan  of 
suppressing  the  matter,  and  to  concert  means  for  gettmg 
the  whole  subject  before  the  full  conference. 

June  11. 

Instead  of  going  to  hear  the  Bishop  of  Hereford  preach 
on  "  Peace,"  I  walked  with  Dr.  Holls  to  Scheveningen, 
four  miles,  to  work  off  a  nervous  headache  and  to  invite 
Count  Minister  to  our  luncheon  on  Monday,  when  we 
purpose  to  take  counsel  together  regarding  private  prop- 
erty on  the  high  seas.  He  accepted,  but  was  out  of  humor 
with  nearly  all  the  proceedings  of  the  conference.  He  is 
more  than  ever  opposed  to  arbitration,  and  declares  that, 
m  view  of  the  original  Russian  program  under  which  we 
were  called  to  meet,  Ave  have  no  right  to  take  it  up  at  all, 
since  it  was  not  mentioned.   He  was  decidedly  pessimistic 


56  THE  FIRST   HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

recjardinof  tlie  contiiiiiance  of  the  sessions,  asking  me 
when  I  thonght  it  wonld  all  end  ;  and  on  my  answering 
that  I  had  not  the  slightest  idea,  he  said  that  he  was 
entirely  in  the  dark  on  the  subject ;  that  nobody  could 
tell  how  long  it  would  last,  or  how  it  would  break  off. 

June  12. 

At  half-past  twelve  came  our  American  luncheon  to 
Count  Mlinster,  Mr.  van  Karnebeek  and  Baron  de  Bildt, 
each  of  whom  is  at  the  head  of  his  delegation,  —  our 
purpose  being  to  discuss  with  them  the  best  manner  of 
getting  the  subject  of  innimnity  of  private  property  at 
sea,  not  contraband,  before  the  conference,  these  gentle- 
men being  especially  devoted  to  such  a  measure. 

All  went  off  very  well,  full  interchange  of  views  took 
place,  and  the  general  opinion  was  that  the  best  way 
would  be  for  us,  as  the  only  delegation  instructed  on  the 
subject,  to  draw  up  a  formal  memorial  asking  that  the 
question  be  brought  before  the  conference,  and  sending 
this  to  M.  de  Staal  as  our  president. 

Curious  things  came  out  during  our  conversation. 
Baron  de  Bildt  informed  me  that,  strongly  as  he  favored 
the  measure,  and  prepared  as  he  was  to  vote  for  it,  he 
should  have  to  be  very  careful  in  discussing  it  publicly, 
since  his  instructions  were  to  avoid,  just  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, any  clash  between  the  opinions  expressed  by  the 
Swedish  representatives  and  those  of  the  great  powers. 
Never  before  have  I  so  thoroughly  realized  the  diflicult 
position  which  the  lesser  powers  in  Europe  hold  as  re- 
gards really  serious  questions. 

More  surprising  was  the  conversation  of  Count  Mini- 
ster, he  being  on  one  side  of  me  and  Mr.  van  Kai'nebeek 


THE  FIRST   HAGl'E   CONFEREXCE  57 

on  the  other.  Bearing  in  mind  that  the  Emperor  Wilham, 
during  his  long  talk  with  me  just  before  I  left  Berlin, 
in  referring  to  the  approaching  Peace  Congress  had  said 
that  he  was  sending  Count  Miinster  because  what  the 
conference  would  most  need  would  be  "  common  sense," 
and  because,  in  his  opinion.  Count  JMlinster  had  ''  lots 
of  it,"  some  of  the  count's  utterances  astonished  me.  He 
now  came  out,  as  he  did  the  day  before  in  his  talk  with 
me,  utterly  against  arbitration,  declaring  it  a  ''humbug," 
and  that  we  had  no  riglit  to  consider  it,  since  it  was  not 
mentioned  in  the  first  proposals  from  Russia,  etc.,  etc. 

A  little  later,  something  having  been  said  about  tele- 
graphs and  telephones,  he  expressed  liis  belief  that  they 
are  a  curse  as  regards  the  relations  between  nations ;  that 
they  interfere  with  diplomacy,  and  do  more  harm  than 
good.  This  did  not  especially  surprise  me,  for  I  had  heard 
the  same  opinions  uttered  by  others ;  but  what  did  sur- 
prise me  greatly  was  to  hear  him  say,  when  the  subject 
of  bacteria  and  microbes  was  casually  mentioned,  that 
they  were  "  all  a  modern  humbug." 

It  is  clear  that,  with  all  his  fine  qualities,  —  and  he  is 
really  a  splendid  specimen  of  an  old-fashioned  German 
nobleman  devoted  to  the  diplomatic  service  of  his  coun- 
try, —  he  is  saturated  with  tlie  ideas  of  fifty  years  ago. 

Returning  from  a  drive  to  Scheveningen  with  Major 
Burbank  of  the  United  States  army,  I  sketclied  the  first 
part  of  a  draft  for  a  letter  from  our  delegation  to  M.  de 
Staal,  and  at  our  meethig  at  six  presented  it,  when  it 
met  with  general  approval.  President  Low  had  also 
sketched  a  draft  which  it  was  thought  could  be  worked 
very  well  into  the  one  which  I  had  offered,  and  so  we  two 
were  made  a  subcommittee  to  prepare  the  letter  in  full. 


5s  THE  FIRST  iia(;lte  conference 

Jmie  L^ 

This  morning  come  more  disquieting  statements  re- 
garding (xermany.  There  seems  no  longer  any  doubt  that 
the  German  Emperor  is  opposing  arbitration,  and,  indeed, 
the  whole  work  of  the  conference,  and  that  he  will  insist 
on  his  main  allies,  Austria  and  Italy,  going  with  him. 
Count  Nigra,  who  is  personally  devoted  to  arbitration, 
allowed  this  in  talking  with  Dr.  Holls ;  and  the  German 
delegates  —  all  of  whom,  with  the  exception  of  Count 
Munster,  are  favorably  inclined  to  a  good  arbitration 
plan — show  that  they  are  disappointed. 

I  had  learned  from  a  high  imperial  official,  before  I 
left  Berlin,  that  the  Emperor  considered  arl)itration  as 
derogatory  to  his  sovereignty,  and  I  was  also  well  aware, 
from  his  conversation,  that  he  was  by  no  means  in  love 
with  the  conference  idea ;  but,  in  view  of  his  speech  at 
Wiesbaden,  and  the  petitions  which  had  come  in  to  him 
from  Bavaria,  I  had  hoped  that  he  had  experienced  a 
''  change  of  heart." 

Possibly  he  might  have  changed  his  opinion  had  not 
Count  Munster  been  here,  I'eporting  to  him  constantly 
against  every  step  taken  by  the  conference. 

There  seems  danger  of  a  catastrophe.  Those  of  us  who 
are  faitliful  to  arbitration  plans  will  go  on  and  do  the 
best  we  can  ;  but  tliore  is  no  telling  what  stumblingblocks 
(iermany  and  her  allies  may  put  in  our  way ;  and,  of 
course,  the  whole  result,  without  their  final  agreement, 
will  seem  to  the  world  a  failure  and,  perhaps,  a  farce. 

The  immediate  results  will  be  that  the  Russian  Em- 
])('ror  will  l)ecome  an  idol  of  the  "  plain  people  "  through- 
out the  world,  the  German  Emperor  will  be  bitterly  hated, 
and  the  sociaHsts,  wlio  form  the  most  dreaded  pai'ty  on 


THE   FIRST   HAGUE  COXFEIIEXCE  59 

the  continent  of  Europe,  will  be  furnished  with  a  thor- 
oughly elTective  weapon  against  their  rulers. 

Some  days  since  I  said  to  a  leading  diplomatist  here, 
"  The  ministers  of  the  German  Emperor  ought  to  tell  him 
that,  sliould  he  oppose  arbitration,  tliere  will  be  concen- 
trated upon  him  an  amount  of  hatred  which  no  mmister 
ought  to  allow  a  sovereign  to  incur."  To  this  he  an- 
swered, "  That  is  true ;  but  there  is  not  a  minister  in 
Germany  who  dares  tell  him." 

June  14. 

This  noon  our  delegation  gave  a  breakfast  to  sundry 
members  of  the  conference  who  are  especially  interested 
in  an  effective  plan  of  arbitration,  the  principal  of  these 
being  Count  Nigra  from  Italy;  Count  Welsersheimb,  first 
delegate  of  Austria;  jNI.  Descamps  of  Belgium;  Baron 
d'Estournelles  of  France ;  and  M.  Asser  of  the  Nether- 
lands. After  some  preliminary  talk,  I  read  to  them  the 
proposal,  which  Sir  Julian  had  handed  me  in  the  morn- 
ing, for  the  purpose  of  obviating  the  objection  to  the 
council  of  administration  in  charge  of  tlie  court  of  arbi- 
tration here  in  The  Hague,  whicli  was  an  important  fea- 
ture of  his  orighial  plan,  but  which  had  been  generally 
rejected  as  involving  expensive  machinery.  His  proposal 
now  is  tliat,  instead  of  a  council  specially  appointed  and 
salaried  to  watch  over  and  provide  for  the  necessities  of 
the  court,  such  council  shall  simply  be  made  up  of  the 
ministers  of  sundry  powers  residing  here,  —  thus  doing 
away  enth'ely  with  the  trouble  and  expense  of  a  special 
council. 

This  I  amended  by  adding  the  Netherlands  minister  of 
foreign  affairs  as  ex-ofticio  president,  there  being  various 


60  THE   FIRST   IIACUE  CONFERENCE 

reasons  for  tins,  and  among  these  the  fact  that,  without 
some  such  provision,  the  Netherlands  would  have  no 
representative  in  the  council. 

The  plan  and  my  amendment  were  well  received,  and 
I  trust  that  our  full  and  friendly  discussion  of  these 
and  various  matters  connected  with  them  will  produce 
a  good  effect  in  the  committees. 

Count  Nigra  expressed  himself  to  me  as  personally 
most  earnestly  in  favor  of  arbitration,  but  it  was  clear 
that  his  position  was  complicated  by  the  relations  of  his 
country  to  Germany  as  one  of  the  Triple  Alliance  ;  and 
the  same  difficulty  was  observable  in  the  case  of  Count 
Welsersheimb,  the  representative  of  Austria,  the  thu'd 
ally  in  the  combination  of  which  Germany  is  the  head. 

In  the  course  of  our  breakfast.  Baron  d'Estournelles 
made  a  statement  which  I  think  impressed  every  person 
present.  It  was  that,  as  he  was  leaving  Paris,  Jaurcs, 
the  famous  socialist,  whom  he  knows  well,  said  to  him, 
"  Go  on  ;  do  all  you  can  at  The  Hague,  but  3'ou  will  labor 
in  vain  :  you  can  accomplish  nothing  there,  your  schemes 
will  fail,  and  w(;  shall  triumpli,''  or  words  to  that  effect. 
So  clear  an  indication  as  this  of  the  effect  which  a  failure 
of  the  conference  to  produce  a  good  scheme  of  arbitra- 
tion will  have  in  promoting  the  designs  of  the  great  inter- 
national socialist  and  anarchist  combinations  cannot  fail 
to  impress  every  thinking  man. 

Dined  in  the  evening  with  the  Frencli  minister  at  this 
court,  and  very  pleasantly.  There  were  present  M.  Leon 
Bourgeois,  the  French  first  delegate,  and  the  first  dele- 
gates from  Japan,  China,  Mexico  and  Turkey,  with  sub- 
ordinate delegates  from  other  countries.  Sitting  ]iext  the 
lady  at  the  right  of  the  host,  I  found  her  to  be  the  wife 


THE  FIRST   IL\(JUE  CONFERENCE  61 

of  the  premier,  ^NI.  Piersoon,  minister  of  finance,  and  very 
agreeable.  I  took  in  to  dinner  Madame  Behrends,  wife 
of  the  Russian  charge,  evidently  a  very  thoughtful  and 
accomplished  woman,  who  was  born,  as  she  told  me,  of 
English  parents  in  the  city  of  New  York  when  her  father 
and  mother  were  on  their  way  to  England.  I  found  her 
very  interesting,  and  her  discussions  of  Russia,  as  well 
as  of  England  and  the  Netherlands,  especially  good. 

In  the  smoking  room  I  had  a  long  talk  with  M.  Leon 
Bourgeois,  who,  according  to  the  papers,  is  likely  to  be 
appointed  minister  of  foreign  affairs  in  the  new  French 
cabinet.  He  dwelt  upon  the  dithcnilties  of  any  plan  for 
a  tribunal,  but  seemed  ready  to  do  what  lie  could  for 
the  compromise  plan,  which  is  all  that,  during  some  time 
past,  we  have  hoped  to  adopt. 

Ju)ie  lo. 

Early  this  morning  Count  .Miinster  called,  wishing  to 
see  me  especially,  and  at  once  plunged  into  the  question 
of  the  immunity  of  private  property  from  seizure  on  the 
high  seas.  He  said  that  he  had  just  received  instructions 
from  his  government  to  join  us  heartily  in  bringing  the 
question  before  the  conference  ;  that  his  government, 
much  as  it  inclines  to  favor  the  principle,  could  not  yet 
see  its  way  to  commit  itself  fully ;  that  its  action  must, 
of  course,  depend  upon  the  conduct  of  other  powers  in 
the  matter,  as  foreshadowed  by  discussions  in  the  confer- 
ence, but  that  he  was  to  aid  us  in  bringing  it  up. 

I  told  him  I  was  now  preparing  a  draft  of  a  memorial 
to  the  conference  giving  the  reasons  why  the  subject 
ought  to  be  submitted,  and  that  he  should  have  it  as 
soon  as  completed. 


62  THE   FIRST   HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

This  matter  being  for  the  time  disposed  of,  we  took 
up  the  state  of  the  arbitration  question,  and  the  conse- 
quences of  opposition  by  Germany  and  her  two  alhes  to 
every  feasible  plan. 

He  was  very  much  in  earnest,  and  declared  especially 
against  compulsory  arbitration.  To  this  I  answered  that 
the  plan  thus  far  adopted  contemplated  entirely  volun- 
tary arbitration,  with  the  exception  that  an  obligatory 
system  was  agreed  upon  as  regards  sundry  petty  matters 
in  which  arbitration  would  assist  all  the  states  concerned  ; 
and  that  if  he  disliked  this  latter  feature,  but  would 
agree  to  the  others,  we  would  go  with  him  in  striking  it 
out,  though  we  should  vastly  prefer  to  retain  it. 

He  said,  "  Yes ;  you  liave  already  stricken  out  part  of 
it  in  the  interest  of  the  United  States,"  referring  to  the 
features  concerning  the  Monroe  doctrine,  the  regulation 
of  canals,  rivers,  etc. 

"  Very  true,"  T  answered;  "  and  if  there  are  any  spe- 
cial features  which  affect  unfavorably  (Terman  policy  or 
interests,  move  to  strike  them  out,  and  wa  will  heartily 
support  you." 

He  then  dwelt  in  his  usual  maimer  on  his  special  hobby, 
which  is  that  modern  nations  are  taking  an  entirely  false 
route  in  preventing  the  settlement  of  their  difficulties 
by  trained  diplomatists,  and  intrusting  them  to  arbitra- 
tion by  men  inexperienced  in  international  matters,  who 
really  cannot  be  ujiprejudiced  or  nnintlnenced  ;  and  he. 
spoke  with  especial  contempt  of  the  plan  for  creating  a 
bureau,  composed,  as  he  said,  of  university  professors 
and  the  like,  to  carry  on  the  machinery  of  the  tribunal. 

Here  I  hap[)ened  to  have  a  trump  card.  1  showed 
him  Sir  Jnlian  Pauncefote's  plan  to  substitute  a  council 


THE  FIRST  HAGUE   CONFERENCE  63 

composed  of  all  the  ministers  of  the  signatory  powers 
residing  at  The  Hague,  with  my  amendment  making  the 
Dutch  minister  of  foreign  affairs  its  president.  This  he 
read  and  said  he  liked  it;  in  fact,  it  seemed  to  remove 
a  mass  of  prejudice  from  his  mind. 

I  then  spoke  very  earnestly  to  him  —  more  so  than  ever 
before  —  about  the  present  condition  of  affairs.  I  told 
him  that  the  counselors  in  whom  the  Emperor  trusted  — 
such  .men  as  himself  and  the  principal  advisers  of  his 
Majesty  —  ought  never  to  allow  their  young  sovereign  to 
be  exposed  to  the  mass  of  hatred,  obloquy  and  oppo- 
sition which  would  converge  upon  him  from  all  nations 
in  case  he  became  known  to  the  whole  world  as  the  sov- 
ereign who  had  broken  down  the  conference  and  brought 
to  naught  the  plan  of  arbitration.  I  took  the  lil)erty  of 
telling  him  what  tlie  Emperor  said  to  me  regarding  the 
count  himself  —  namely,  that  what  the  conference  was 
most  likely  to  need  was  good  common  sense,  and  that  he 
was  sending  Count  Mlinster  because  he  possessed  that. 
This  seemed  to  please  him,  and  I  then  went  on  to  say  that 
he  of  all  men  ought  to  prevent,  by  all  means,  placing 
the  young  Emperor  in  such  a  position.  I  dwelt  on  the 
gifts  and  graces  of  the  young  sovereign,  expressed  my 
feeling  of  admiration  for  his  noble  ambitions,  for  his 
abilities,  for  the  statesmanship  he  had  recently  shown, 
for  his  grasp  of  public  affairs,  and  for  his  way  of  con- 
ciliating all  classes,  and  then  dwelt  on  the  pity  of  mak- 
ing such  a  monarch  un  object  of  hatred  in  all  parts  of 
the  world. 

He  seemed  impressed  by  this,  but  said  the  calUng  of 
the  conference  was  simply  a  political  trick  —  the  most 
detestable  trick  ever  practiced.     It  was  done,   he  said, 


64  THE  FIRST  iiAcri-:  conferexce 

mainly  to  embarrass  Germany,  to  glorify  the  young  Rus- 
sian Emperor,  and  to  put  Germany  and  nations  which 
Russia  dislikes  into  a  false  position.  To  this  I  an- 
swered: "  If  this  be  the  case,  why  not  trump  the  Russian 
trick  ?  or,  as  the  poker  players  say, '  Go  them  one  better,' 
take  them  at  their  word,  support  a  good  tribunal  of  arbi- 
tration more  efficient  even  than  the  Russians  have  dared 
to  propose ;  let  your  sovereign  throw  himself  heartily 
into  the  movement  and  become  a  recognized  leader  and 
power  here;  we  will  all  su[)p()rt  him,  and  to  him  will 
come  the  credit  of  it. 

"  Then,  in  addition  to  this,  support  us  as  far  as  you 
can  as  regards  tlie  inununity  of  private  property  on  the 
high  seas,  and  thus  you  will  gain  another  great  point ; 
for,  owing  to  her  relations  to  France,  Russia  has  not 
dared  commit  lierself  to  this  principle  as  otherwise  she 
doubtless  would  have  done,  ])ut,  on  the  contrary,  has 
opposed  any  consideration  of  it  by  the  conference. 

"  Next,  let  attention  be  called  to  the  fact — and  we  will 
gladly  aid  in  making  the  world  fully  aware  of  it  —  tliat 
Germany,  through  you,  has  constantly  urged  the  great- 
est publicity  of  our  proceedings,  v.diile  certain  other 
powers  have  insisted  on  secrecy  until  secrecy  has  utterly 
broken  down,  and  then  have  made  the  least  concession 
possible.  In  this  way  you  will  come  out  of  the  confer- 
ence triumphant,  and  the  German  iMuperor  will  be  looked 
upon  as,  after  all,  the  arbiter  of  Europe.  Everybody 
knows  that  France  has  never  wished  arbitration,  and 
that  Russian  statesmen  are  really,  at  heart,  none  too  ar- 
dent for  it.  Come  forward,  then,  and  make  the  matter 
thoroughly  your  own  ;  and,  having  done  this,  maintain 
your  present  attitude  strongly  as  regards  the  two  other 


THE  FIRST  iia(;up:  conference  65 

matters  above  named,  —  that  is,  the  immunity  from  seiz- 
ure of  private  property  on  the  high  seas,  and  tlie  throw- 
ing open  of  our  proceedings,  —  and  the  honors  of  the 
whole  conference  are  yours." 

He  seemed  impressed  by  all  this,  and  took  a  different 
tone  from  any  which  has  been  noted  in  him  since  we 
came  together.  I  then  asked  him  if  lu;  liad  heard  liaron 
d'Estournelles'  story.  He  said  that  he  had  not.  T  told 
it  to  him,  as  given  in  my  diary  yesterday  ;  and  said, 
''  You  see  there  what  the  failure  to  obtain  a  result  which 
is  really  so  much  longed  for  by  all  tlie  peoples  of  the 
world  will  do  to  promote  the  designs  of  the  socialistic 
forces  which  are  so  powerful  in  all  parts  of  the  Continent, 
and  nowhere  more  so  than  in  Germany  and  the  nations 
allied  with  her." 

This,  too,  seemed  to  impress  him.  I  then  went  on  to 
say:  "This  is  not  all  By  opposing  arbitration,  you  not 
only  put  a  clidj  into  tlic  hands  of  socialists,  anarchists 
and  all  tlie  other  antisocial  forces,  b\U  you  alienate  the 
substantial  middle  class  and  the  great  body  of  religious 
people  in  all  nations.  You  have  no  cont-eption  of  the 
depth  of  feeling  on  this  subject  which  exists  in  my  own 
country,  to  say  notliing  of  others;  and  if  Germany  stands 
in  the  way,  the  distrust  of  her  which  Americans  have 
felt,  and  which  as  minister  and  ambassador  at  Berlin 
I  have  labored  so  hard  to  dispel,  will  be  infinitely  in- 
creased. It  will  render  more  and  more  difficult  the  main- 
tenance of  proper  relations  between  the  two  countries. 
Your  sovereign  will  be  looked  upon  as  the  enemy  of  all 
nations,  and  will  be  exposed  to  every  sort  of  attack  and 
calunmy,  while  the  young  Emperor  of  Russia  will  be- 
come a  popular  idol  throughout  the  wcjrld,  siiu-e  he  will 


(h;  the  first  iiaoue  conference 

represent  to  the  popular  mind,  and  even  to  the  mhids  of 
great  bodies  of  thinking  and  rehgious  people,  the  effort 
to  prevent  war  and  to  solve  public  questions  as  much  as 
possible  without  bloodshed ;  while  the  Emperor  of  Ger- 
many will  represent  to  their  minds  the  desire  to  solve 
all  great  questions  by  force.  Mind,  I  don't  say  this  is  a 
just  view  :  I  only  say  that  it  is  the  view  sure  to  be  taken, 
and  that  by  resisting  arl)itratioii   here  you  are  playing 

the  game  of   llussia,  as  you  yourself  have  stated  it 

that  is,  you  are  giving  Russia  the  moral  su})port  of  the 
wliole  world  at  the  expense  of  the  neighboring  powers, 
and  above  till  of  Germany." 

I  then  took  up  an  argument  which,  it  is  understood, 
has  had  much  influence  with  the  Emperor, —  namely,  that 
arbitration  nuist  be  in  derogation  of  his  sovereignty,  — 
and  asked :  '''  How  can  any  such  derogation  be  possible  ? 
Your  sovereign  would  submit  only  such  cpiestions  to  the- 
arbitration  tribunal  as  he  thought  best ;  and,  more  than 
all  that,  you  have  already  committed  yourselves  to 
the  principle.  You  are  aware  that  Bismarck  submitted 
the  question  of  the  Caroline  Islands  for  arbitration  to  the 
l*ope,  and  the  first  Emperor  AVilliani  consented  to  act 
as  arbiter  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain 
in  the  matter  of  the  American  northwestern  boundary. 
How  t'ould  arl)itratioii  affect  the  true  position  of  the 
sovereign  ?  Take,  foi-  example,  matters  as  they  now 
stand  between  (lermany  and  the  United  States.  There  is 
a  vast  mass  of  petty  questions  which  constantly  trouble 
the  relations  between  the  two  (countries.  These  little 
questions  embitter  debates,  whether  in  your  Reichstag  on 
one  hand,  or  in  our  Congress  on  the  other,  and  make 
the  position  t)^  the  Berlin  and  Washington  govcj'nments 


THE  FIRST  HAGUE  COXFERENCE  67 

especially  difficult.  The  American  papers  attack  me  be- 
cause I  yield  too  much  to  Germany,  the  German  papers 
attack  Von  Biilow  because  he  yields  too  much  to  America, 
and  these  little  questions  remam.  If  Von  Biilow  and  I 
were  allowed  to  sit  down  and  settle  them,  we  could  do 
so  at  short  notice ;  but  behind  him  stands  the  Reichstag, 
and  behind  our  Secretary  of  State  and  myself  stands  the 
American  Congress." 

I  referred  to  such  questions  as  the  tonnage  dues,  the 
additional  tariff  on  bounty-promoted  sugar,  Samoa,  the 
most-favored-nation  clause,  in  treaties  between  Germau}"^ 
and  the  United  States,  in  relation  to  the  same  clause  in 
sundry  treaties  between  the  United  States  and  other 
powers,  and  said :  "  What  a  blessing  it  would  be  if  all 
these  questions,  of  which  both  governments  are  tired, 
and  which  make  the  more  important  questions  constantly 
arising  between  the  two  countries  so  difficult  to  settle, 
could  be  sent  at  once  to  a  tribunal  and  decided  one  way 
or  the  other !  In  themselves  they  amount  to  little.  It  is 
not  at  all  unlikely  that  most  of  them  —  possibly  all  of 
them  —  would  be  decided  in  favor  of  Germany  ;  but  the 
United  States  would  aiMiuicscc  al  oiice  in  the  decision  by 
a  tribunal  such  as  is  proposed.  ^Vncl  this  is  just  what 
would  take  place  between  Germany  and  other  nations. 
A  mass  of  vexatious  questions  would  be  settled  by  the 
tribunal,  and  the  sovereign  and  his  government  would 
thus  be  relieved  from  parliamentary  chicanery  based,  not 
upon  knowledge,  but  upon  party  tactics  or  personal 
grudges  or  inherited  prejudices." 

He  seemed  now  more  mcluied  to  give  weight  to  these 
considerations,  and  will,  I  hope,  urge  his  government  to 
take  a  better  view  than  that  which  for  some  time  past 


68  THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

has  seemed  to  be  indicated  by  the  conduct  of  its  repre- 
sentatives here. 

In  the  afternoon  I  went  to  the  five-o'clock  tea  of  the 
Baroness  d'Estournelles,  found  a  great  crowd  there,  in- 
ckiding  the  leading  delegates,  and  all  anxious  as  to  the 
conduct  of  (rermany.  Meeting  the  Baroness  von  Suttner, 
who  has  been  writing  such  earnest  books  in  behalf  of 
peace,  I  urged  her  to  write  with  all  her  might  to  influ- 
ence public  prints  in  Austria,  Italy  and  Germany  in 
behalf  of  arbitration,  telling  her  that  we  are  just  arriv- 
ing at  the  parting  of  the  ways,  and  that  everything  pos- 
sible must  be  done  now,  or  all  may  be  lost.  To  this  she 
responded  very  heartily,  and  I  have  no  doubt  will  use 
her  pen  with  much  effect. 

In  the  evening  went  to  a  great  reception  at  the  house 
of  the  Austrian  ambassador,  M.  Okolicsanyi.  There  was 
a  crush.  Had  a  long  talk  with  Mr.  Stead,  telling  him 
D'Estournelles'  story,  and  urging  him  to  use  it  in  every 
way  to  sliow  what  a  Ixxin  the  failure  of  arbitration  would 
be  to  tlie  antisocial  forces  in  all  parts  of  Europe. 

In  the  intervals  during  the  day  I  busied  myself  in 
completing  the  memorial  to  the  conference  regarding 
the  immunity  from  seizure  of  private  property  at  sea.  If 
we  cannot  secure  it  now,  we  must  at  least  pave  the  way 
for  its  admission  by  a  future  mternational  conference. 


IV 

June  10- 

THIS  morning  Count  jMiinster  called  and  seemed 
much  excited  by  the  fact  that  he  had  received  a 
dispatch  from  Berlin  in  wliich  the  German  Government 
—  which,  of  course,  means  the  Emperor  —  had  strongly 
and  finall}^  declared  against  everything  like  an  arbitration 
tribunal.  He  was  clearly  disconcerted  by  this  too  literal 
acceptance  of  his  own  earlier  views,  and  said  that  he  had 
sent  to  M.  de  Staal  insisting  that  the  meeting  of  the  sub- 
committee on  arbitration,  which  had  been  appointed  for 
this  day  (Friday^,  should  be  adjourned  on  some  pretext 
until  next  ^londay ;  "  for,"  said  he,  ''  if  tlie  session 
takes  place  to-day,  Zorn  must  make  the  declaration  in 
behalf  of  (jermany  which  these  new  instructions  order 
him  to  make,  and  that  would  V)e  a  misfortune."'  I  was 
very  glad  to  see  this  evidence  of  change  of  heart  in  the 
count,  and  immediately  joined  him  in  securing  the  ad- 
journment he  desired.  The  meeting  of  the  subcommit- 
tee has  therefore  been  deferred,  the  reason  assigned,  as  I 
understand,  being  that  Baron  d'Estournelles  is  too  much 
occupied  to  be  present  at  the  time  first  named.  Later 
Count  ^Minister  told  me  tliat  he  liad  decided  to  send 
Professor  Zorn  to  Berlin  at  once  in  order  to  lay  the 
whole  matter  before  the  Foreign  Office  and  induce  the 
authorities  to  modify  the  instructions.  I  approved  this 
cowse  strongly,  whereupon  he  suggested  that  I  should 
do  something  to  the  same  purpose,  and  this  finally  ended 
in  the  agreement  that  Holls  should  go  with  Zorn. 

69 


70  THE   FIRST   HAGUE   CONFERENCE 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  Von  Billow  liad  agreed  that 
the  German  delegates  should  stand  side  by  side  with  us 
m  the  conference,  I  immediately  prepared  a  letter  of  in- 
troduction and  a  personal  letter  to  Blilow  for  Holls  to 
take,  and  he  started  about  five  in  the  afternoon.  This 
letter  is  as  follows  : 

(Copy.) 
(^Personal.^ 

June  16,  1899. 
Dear  Baron  vox  Bulow  : 

I  trust  that,  in  view  of  the  kindly  relations  which  exist 
between  us,  succeeding  as  they  do  similar  relations  be- 
gun twenty  years  ago  with  your  honored  father,  you  will 
allow  me  to  write  you  informally,  but  fully  and  frankly, 
regarding  the  interests  of  both  our  governments  in  the 
peace  conference.  The  relations  between  your  delegates 
and  ours  have,  from  the  first,  been  of  the  kindest ;  your 
assurances  on  this  point  have  been  thoroughly  carried 
out.  But  we  seem  now  to  be  at  "  the  parting  of  the 
ways,"  and  on  the  greatest  question  subniitted  to  us,  — 
the  greatest,  as  I  believe,  that  any  conference  or  any 
congress  has  taken  up  in  our  time,  —  namely,  the  pro- 
vision for  a  tribunal  of  arbitration. 

It  is  generally  said  here  that  Ciermany  is  opposed  to 
the  whole  thing,  that  she  is  utterly  hostile  to  anything 
like  arbitration,  and  tliat  she  will  do  all  in  her  power, 
either  alone  or  through  her  allies,  to  thwart  every  feasi- 
ble plan  of  providing  for  a  tribunal  which  shall  give 
some  hope  to  the  world  of  settling  some  of  the  many  dif- 
ficulties between  nations  otherwise  than  by  bloodshed. 

No  rational  man  here  expects  all  wars  to  be  ended  by 
anything  done  here;  no  one  proposes  to  snbmit  to  any 


THE  FIRST   HAGUE  CONFERENCE  71 

such  tribunal  questions  involving  the  honor  of  any  na- 
tion or  the  inviolability  of  its  territory,  or  any  of  those 
things  which  nations  feel  instinctively  must  be  reserved 
for  their  own  decision.  Nor  does  any  thinking  man  here 
propose  obligatory  arbitration  in  any  case,  save,  possibly, 
in  sundry  petty  matters  where  such  arbitration  would  be 
a  help  to  the  ordinary  administration  of  all  governments  ; 
and,  even  as  to  these,  they  can  be  left  out  of  the  scheme 
if  your  government  seriously  desires  it. 

The  great  thing  is  that  there  be  a  provision  made  for 
easily  calling  together  a  court  of  arbitration  which  shall 
be  seen  of  all  nations,  indicate  a  sincere  desire  to  pro- 
mote peace,  and,  in  some  measure,  relieve  the  various 
peoples  of  the  fear  which  so  heavily  oppresses  them  all 
—  the  dread  of  an  outburst  of  war  at  any  moment. 

I  note  tliat  it  has  been  believed  by  many  that  the  mo- 
tives of  Russia  in  proposing  this  conference  were  none 
too  good,  —  indeed,  that  they  were  possibly  perfidious  ; 
but,  even  if  this  be  granted,  how  does  this  affect  the  con- 
duct of  Germany  ?  Should  it  not  rather  lead  Germany 
to  go  forward  boldly  and  thoughtfully,  to  accept  the 
championship  of  the  idea  of  arbitration,  and  to  take  the 
lead  in  the  whole  business  here  ? 

Germany,  if  she  will  do  tliis,  will  certainly  stand  be- 
fore the  whole  world  as  the  leading  power  of  Europe; 
for  she  can  then  say  to  the  whole  world  that  she  has 
taken  the  proposal  of  Russia  an  seneu.v;  has  supported  a 
thoroughly  good  plan  of  arbitration ;  has  done  what  Rus- 
sia and  France  have  not  been  willing  to  do,  —  favored 
the  presentation  to  the  conference  of  a  plan  providing 
for  the  immunity  of  private  property  from  seizure  on  the 
high  seas  during  war,  —  and  that  while,  as  regards  the 


72  THP:  first  HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

proceedings  of  the  conference,  Russia  has  wished  secrecy, 
Germany  has  steadily,  from  the  first,  promoted  franlvness 
and  openness. 

Witli  tliese  three  points  in  your  favor,  you  can  stand 
before  the  wliole  world  as  the  great  Continental  power 
which  has  stood  up  for  peace  as  neither  Russia  nor 
France  has  been  able  to  do.  On  the  other  hand,  if  you 
do  not  do  this,  if  you  put  a  stumblingblock  in  the  way 
of  arbitration,  what  results  ?  Tlie  other  powers  will  go 
on  and  create  as  good  a  tribunal  as  possible,  and  what- 
ever failure  may  come  will  be  imputed  to  Germany  and 
to  its  Emperor.  In  any  case,  whether  failure  or  suc- 
cess may  come,  the  Emperor  of  Russia  will  be  hailed 
in  all  parts  of  the  world  as  a  deliverer  and,  virtually, 
as  a  saint,  while  there  will  be  a  widespread  outburst  of 
hatred  against  the  German  Emperor. 

And  this  will  come  not  alone  from  the  antisocial  forces 
which  are  hoping  that  the  conference  may  fail,  in  order 
that  thereby  they  may  have  a  new  weapon  in  their  hands, 
but  it  will  also  come  from  the  middle  and  substantial 
classes  of  other  nations. 

It  is  sure  to  make  the  relations  between  Germany  and 
the  United  States,  which  have  been  of  late  improving, 
infinitely  more  bitter  than  they  have  ever  before  been, 
and  it  is  no  less  sure  to  provoke  the  most  bitter  hatred 
of  the  (ierman  monarchy  in  nearly  all  other  nations. 

Should  his  advisers  permit  so  noble  and  so  gifted  a 
sovereign  to  incur  this  political  storm  of  obloquy,  this 
convergence  of  hatred  upon  him  ?  Should  a  ruler  of  such 
noble  ambitions  and  such  admirable  powers  be  exposed 
to  this  ?  I  fully  believe  that  he  should  not,  and  that  his 
advisers  should  beg  him  not  to  place  himself  before  the 


THE  FIRST  IIAGL'E  COXFEREXCE  73 

world  as  the  antagonist  of  a  plan  to  which  millions  upon 
millions  in  all  parts  of  the  world  are  devoted. 

From  the  United  States  come  evidences  of  a  feeling 
widespread  and  deep  on  this  subject  beyond  anything  I 
have  ever  known.  This  very  morning  I  received  a  prayer 
set  forth  by  the  most  conservative  of  all  Protestant  reli- 
gious bodies  —  namely,  the  American  branch  of  the  An- 
glican Church  —  to  l)e  said  in  all  churches,  begguig  the 
Almighty  to  favor  the  work  of  the  peace  conference ; 
and  this  is  what  is  going  on  in  various  other  American 
churches,  and  in  vast  numbers  of  households.  Something 
of  the  same  sort  is  true  in  (xreat  Britain  and,  perhaps,  in 
many  parts  of  the  Continent. 

( Iran  ted  that  expectations  are  overwrought,  still  this  fact 
indicates  that  here  is  a  feeling  which  cannot  be  disregarded. 

INIoreover,  to  my  certain  knowledge,  within  a  month, 
a  leading  socialist  in  France  has  boasted  to  one  of  the 
members  of  this  conference  that  it  would  end  in  failure  ; 
that  the  monarchs  and  governments  of  Europe  do  not 
wish  to  dhninish  bloodshed;  that  they  would  refuse  to 
yield  to  the  desire  of  the  peoples  for  peace,  and  that 
by  the  resentment  thus  aroused  a  new  path  to  victory 
would  be  open  to  socialism. 

Grant,  too,  that  this  is  overstated,  still  such  a  declara- 
tion is  siofiiificant. 

I  know  it  has  been  said  that  arbitration  is  derogatory 
to  sovereignty.  I  really  fail  to  see  how  this  can  be  said 
in  Germany.  Germany  has  already  submitted  a  great 
political  question  between  herself  and  Spam  to  arbitra- 
tion, and  the  Emperor  William  I  was  himself  the  arbiter 
between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  in  the 
matter  of  our  northwestern  boundary. 


74  THE  FIRST   HAGUE   COXFEREXCE 

Bear  in  mind  again  that  it  is  only  voluntary  arbitration 
that  is  proposed,  and  that  it  will  always  rest  with  tlie 
German  Emperor  to  decide  what  questions  lie  will  submit 
to  the  tribunal  and  what  he  will  not. 

It  has  also  been  said  that  arbitration  proceedings 
would  give  the  enemies  of  (fermany  time  to  put  them- 
selves in  readiness  for  war ;  but  if  this  be  feared  in  any 
emergency,  the  Emperor  and  his  government  are  always 
free  to  mobilize  the  (jerman  army  at  once. 

As  "you  are  aware,  what  is  seriously  proposed  here  now, 
ill  the  way  of  arbitration,  is  not  a  tribunal  constantly  in 
session,  but  a  system  under  which  each  of  the  signatory 
powers  shall  be  free  to  choose,  for  a  limited  time,  from 
an  international  court,  say  two  or  more  judges  who  can 
go  to  The  Hague  if  their  services  are  required,  but  to  be 
paid  only  while  actually  in  session  here ;  such  payment 
to  be  made  by  the  litigating  parties. 

As  to  the  machineiy,  the  plan  is  that  there  shall  be  a 
dignified  body  composed  of  the  diplomatic  representa- 
tives of  the  various  signatory  powers,  to  sit  at  The 
Hague,  presided  over  by  the  Netherlands  minister  of 
foreign  affairs,  and  to  select  and  to  control  such  secre- 
taries and  officers  as  may  be  necessary  for  the  ordinary 
conduct  of  affairs. 

Such  council  would  receive  notice  from  powers  having 
differences  with  each  other  which  are  willhig  to  submit 
the  questions  between  them  to  a  court,  and  would  then 
give  notice  to  the  ju<lges  selected  by  the  parties.  The 
whole  of  the  present  plan,  except  some  subordinate  fea- 
tures of  little  account,  which  can  easily  be  stricken  out, 
is  voluntary.  There  is  nothing  whatever  obligatory  about 
it.    Every  signatory  power  is  free  to  resort  to  such  a 


THE  FIRST  HAGUE  COXFEREXCE  75 

tribunal  or  not,  as  it  may  think  best.  Surely  a  concession 
like  this  may  well  be  made  to  the  deep  and  wide  senti- 
ment throughout  tlie  world  in  favor  of  some  possible 
means  of  settling  controversies  between  nations  other 
than  b}'    bloodshed. 

Pardon  me  for  earnestly  pressing  upon  you  these  facts 
and  considerations.  I  beg  that  you  will  not  consider  me 
as  going  beyond  my  province.  I  present  them  to  you  as 
man  to  man,  not  only  hi  the  interest  of  good  relations 
between  Germany  and  the  United  States,  but  of  interests 
common  to  all  the  gi'eat  nations  of  the  earth,  —  of  their 
common  interest  in  giving  something  like  satisfaction  to 
a  desire  so  earnest  and  widespread  as  that  wliicli  lias 
been  shown  in  all  parts  of  the  world  for  arbitration. 

I  remam,  dear  Baron  von  Biilow, 

Most  respectfully  and  sincerely  yours, 

(  Sgd.)         Andrew  D.  White. 

P.  S.  Think  how  easily,  if  some  such  tribunal  existed, 
your  government  and  mine  could  refer  to  it  the  whole 
mass  of  minor  questions  which  our  respective  parlia- 
mentary bodies  have  got  control  of,  and  entangled  in  all 
sorts  of  petty  prejudices  and  demagogical  utterances ; 
for  instance,  Samoa,  the  tonnage  dues,  the  sugar-bounty 
question,  the  most-favored-nation  clause,  etc.,  etc.,  which 
keep  the  two  countries  constantly  at  loggerheads.  Do 
you  not  see  that  submission  of  such  questions  to  such 
a  tribunal  as  is  now  proposed,  so  far  from  being  derog- 
atory to  sovereignty,  really  relieves  the  sovereign  and 
the  Foreign  ( )ffice  of  the  most  vexatious  fetters  and  limi- 
tations of  parliamentarianism.  It  is  not  at  all  unlikely 
that  such  a  court  would  decide  in  your  favor ;  and  if  so, 


76  THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

every  thoughtful  American  would  say,  "  Well  and  good  ; 
it  appears  that,  in  spite  of  all  the  speeches  in-  C'pngress, 
we  were  wrong."  .\nd  the  matter  would  then  be  ended 
with  the  good  will  of  all  parties. 

(  Sgd.)  A.  D.  W. 

It  is  indeed  a  crisis  in  the  history  of  the  conference, 
and  perhaps  in  the  history  of  Germany.  I  can  only  hope 
that  Billow  will  give  careful  attention  to  the  considera- 
tions which  Miinster  and  myself  press  upon  him. 

Later  in  the  day  Sir  Julian  Pauncefote  called,  evi- 
dently much  vexed  that  the  sitting  of  the  subcommittee 
had  been  deferred,  and  even  more  vexed  since  he  had 
learned  from  De  Staal  the  real  reason.  He  declared  that 
he  was  opposed  to  stringing  out  the  conference  much 
longer ;  that  the  subcommittee  could  get  along  perfectly 
well  without  Dr.  Zorn ;  that  if  Germany  did  not  wish 
to  come  in,  she  could  keep  out ;  etc.,  etc.  He  seemed  to 
forget  that  Germany's  going  out  means  the  departure  of 
Austria  and  Italy,  to  say  nothing  of  one  or  two  minor 
powers,  and  therefore  the  bringing  to  naught  of  the  con- 
ference. I  did  not  think  it  best  to  sa}^  anything  about 
Holls'  depai'tnre,  but  soothed  him  as  nnu'h  as  I  could 
by  dwelling  on  the  success  of  his  proposal  that  the  per- 
manent council  here  shall  be  composed  of  the  resident 
diplomatic  representatives. 

Thti  other  members  of  our  commission,  and  especially 
President  Low,  were  at  first  very  much  opposed  to  Dr. 
Holls'  going,  on  the  ground  that  it  might  be  considered 
an  interference  in  a  matter  pertaining  to  Germany;  but 
I  persisted  in  sending  him,  agreehig  to  take  all  the  re- 
sponsibility, and  declaring  that  he  should  go  simply  as 


THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE  77 

a  messenger  from  me,  as  the  American  ambassador  at 
Berlin,  to  the  imperial  minister  of  foreign  affairs. 

June  17. 

Tlie  morning  was  given  largely  to  completing  my  draft 
of  onr  memorial  to  the  conference  regarding  the  immu- 
nity of  private  property  in  time  of  war  from  seizure  on 
the  high  seas. 

In  the  afternoon  drove  to  Scheveningen  to  make  sun- 
dry official  visits,  and  in  the  evening  to  the  great  festival 
given  by  the  Netherlands  (iovernment  to  the  conference. 

Its  first  feature  was  a  series  of  tal)leaux  representing 
some  of  the  most  famous  pictures  in  the  Dutch  galleries, 
the  most  successful  of  all  being  Rembrandt's  ''  Night 
Watch."  Jan  Steen's  "'  Wedding  Party  "  was  also  very 
beautiful.  Then  came  peasant  dances  given,  in  the  midst 
of  the  great  hall,  by  persons  in  the  costumes  of  all  the 
different  provinces.  I'hese  were  characteristic  and  inter- 
esting, some  of  them  being  wonderfully  quaint. 

The  violinist  of  the  late  King.  Johannes  A\"o]ff,  played 
some  solos  in  a  masterly  way. 

The  music  by  the  great  military  l)and,  especially  the 
hymn  of  William  of  Nassau  and  the  Dutch  and  Russian 
national  anthems,  was  splendidly  rendered,  and  the  old 
Dutch  provincial  music  played  in  connection  with  the 
dances  and  tableaux  was  also  notewortliy. 

It  was  an  exceedingly  l)rilliant  assemblage,  and  the 
whole  festival  from  first  to  last  a  decided  success. 

June  IS.,  Sundajj. 

Went  to  Leyden  to  attend  service  at  St.  Peter's. 
Both   the   church   and   its   monuments    are    interestiner. 


78  THE   FIRST   HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

Visited  also  the  church  of  St.  Pancras,  a  remarkable  spec- 
imen of  Gothic  architecture,  and  looked  upon  the  toinb 
of  Van  der  Werf,  the  brave  burgomaster  who  defended 
the  town  agamst  the  Spaniards  during  the  siege. 

At  the  university  I  was  much  interested  in  the  public 
hall  where  degrees  are  conferred,  and  above  all  in  the 
many  portraits  of  distinguished  professors.  Lingered  next 
in  the  botanical  gardens  back  of  the  university,  which 
are  very  beautiful. 

Then  to  the  Museum  of  Antiquities,  which  is  remark- 
ably rich  in  Egyptian  and  other  monuments.  Roman  art 
is  also  very  fully  represented. 

Thence  home,  and,  on  arriving,  found,  of  all  men  in  the 
world,  Thomas  B.  Reed,  Speaker  of  our  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives. Mr.  Newel,  our  minister,  took  us  both  for  a 
drive  to  Scheveningen,  and  Mr.  Reed's  conversation  was 
exceedingly  interesting ;  he  is  well  read  in  history  and, 
apparently,  in  every  field  of  English  literature.  Tliere  is 
a  bigness,  a  heartiness,  a  shrewdness  and  a  genuineness 
about  him  which  greatly  attract  me. 

June  19. 

Called  on  ]\I.  de  Staal  to  show  him  Holls'  telegram 
from  Berlin,  whicli  is  encouraging.  De  Staal  thinks  that 
we  may  have  to  give  up  the  tenth  section  of  the  arbitra- 
tion plan,  wliich  includes  obligatory  arbitration  in  sundry 
minoi-  matters;  but  while  I  shall  be  very  sorry  to  see 
this  done,  we  ought  to  make  the  sacrifice  if  it  will  hold 
Germany,  Italy  and  Austria  to  us. 

A  little  later  received  a  heaily  tidegram  from  the  Sec- 
retary of  State  authorizing  our  ordering  the  wreath  of 


tup:   first   HAGUE  CONFERENCE  79 

silver  and  gold  and  placing  it  on  the  tomb  of  Grotius. 
Telegraphed  and  wrote  ]\lajor  Allen  at  Berlm  full  direc- 
tions on  the  subject.  I  am  determined  that  the  tril)ute 
shall  be  worthy  of  our  country,  of  its  object,  and  of  the 
occasion. 

In  the  afternoon  took  Speaker  Reed,  with  his  wife  and 
daughter,  through  the  "  House  in  the  Wood,"  afterwards 
through  the  grounds,  which  are  more  beautiful  -than 
ever,  and  then  to  Delft,  where  we  visited  the  tombs  of 
William  the  Silent  and  Grotius,  and  finally  the  house 
in  which  William  was  assassinated.  It  was  even  more 
interesting  to  me  than  during  either  of  my  former  visits, 
and  was  evidently  quite  as  interesting  to  Mr.  Reed. 

At  six  attended  a  long  meeting  of  the  American  dele- 
gation, which  elaborated  the  final  draft  of  our  commu- 
nication to  ^I.  de  Staal  on  the  immunity  of  private 
property  on  the  high  seas.  Various  passages  were  stricken 
out,  some  of  them  —  and,  indeed,  one  of  the  best  —  in 
deference  to  the  ideas  of  Captain  Mahan,  who,  though 
he  is  willing,  under  instructions  from  the  government, 
to  join  in  presentmg  the  memorial,  does  not  wish  to 
sign  anything  which  can  possibly  be  regarded  as  indi- 
cating a  personal  belief  in  the  establishment  of  such  im- 
munity. His  is  the  natural  view  of  a  sailor;  but  the 
argument  with  which  he  supports  it  does  not  at  all  con- 
vmce  me.  It  is  that  during  war  we  should  do  everything 
possible  to  weaken  and  worry  the  adversary,  in  order 
that  he  may  be  the  sooner  ready  for  peace ;  but  this 
argument  proves  too  much,  since  it  would  oblige  us,  if 
logically  carried  out,  to  go  back  to  the  marauding  and 
atrocities  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War. 


80  THE   FIRST   HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

June  20. 

Went  to  the  session  of  one  of  the  committees  at  the 
'''  House  in  the  Wood,"  and  showed  Mr.  van  Karnebeek 
our  private-property  memorial,  which  he  read,  and  on 
which  he  heartily  complimented  us. 

I  then  made  known  to  him  our  proposal  to  lay  a  wreath 
on  the  tomb  of  Grotius,  and  with  this  he  seemed  exceed- 
ingly pleased,  saying  that  the  minister  of  foreign  affairs, 
M.  de  Beaufort,  would  be  especially  delighted,  since  he 
is  devoted  to  the  memory  of  Grotius,  and  delivered  the 
historical  address  when  the  statue  in  front  of  the  great 
church  at  Delft  was  unveiled. 

A  little  later  submitted  the  memorial,  as  previously 
agreed  upon,  to  Count  Miinster,  who  also  approved  it. 

Holls  telegraphs  me  from  Berlin  that  he  has  been  ad- 
mirably received  by  the  chancellor,  Prince  Hohenlohe, 
and  by  Baron  von  Biilow,  and  that  he  is  leaving  for 
Hamburg  to  see  the  Emperor. 

At  four  P.M.  to  a  meeting  of  the  full  conference 
to  receive  report  on  improvements  and  extension  of 
the  Red  Cross  rules,  etc.  This  was  adopted  in  a  happy- 
go-lucky,  unparliamentary  way,  for  the  eminent  diplo- 
matist who  presides  over  the  conference  still  betrays  a 
Russian  lack  of  acquaintance  with  ^)arliamentary  pro- 
ceedings. So  begins  the  first  full  movement  of  the 
conference  in  the  right  direction  :  and  it  is  a  good 
beginning. 

Walked  home  through  the  beautiful  avenues  of  the 
park  with  Mr.  van  Karnebeek  and  Baron  d'Estournelles, 
who  is  also  a  charming  man.  He  has  been  a  minister 
plenipotentiary,  but  is  now  a  member  of  the  French 
Chamber  of  Deputies  and  of  the  conference. 


THE  FIRST   HAGUE  CONFERENCE  81 

June  21. 

Early  in  the  morning  received  a  re})ort  from  Holls, 
who  arrived  from  Hamburg  late  last  night.  His  talks 
with  Billow  and  Prince  Hohenlohe  had  been  most 
encouraging.  Billow  has  sent  to  the  Emperor  my  long 
private  letter  to  himself,  earnestly  urging  the  acceptance 
by  (lermany  of  our  plan  of  arbitration.  Prince  Hohen- 
lohe seems  to  have  entered  most  cordially  into  our  ideas, 
p-ivino-  Holls  a  card  which  would  admit  him  to  the 
Emperor,  and  telegraphing  a  request  that  liis  Majesty 
see  him.  I)ut  the  Emperor  was  still  upon  his  yacht,  at 
sea,  and  Holls  could  stay  no  longer.  Biilow  is  trying  to 
make  an  appointment  foi'  him  to  meet  the  Emperor  at 
the  close  of  the  week. 

Early  in  the  afternoon  went  with  Minister  Newel  and 
Mr.  Low  to  call  on  M.  de  Beaufort  regardmg  plans  for 
the  Grotius  celebration,  on  July  4,  at  Delft.  It  was  in 
general  decided  that  we  should  have  the  ceremony 
in  the  great  church  at  eleven  o'clock,  with  sundry 
speeches,  and  that  at  half -past  twelve  the  American 
delegation  should  give  a  luncheon  to  all  the  invited 
guests  in  the  town  hall  opposite. 

Holls  tells  me  that  last  night,  at  tlie  dinner  of  the 
president  of  the  Austrian  delegation,  he  met  ^liinster, 
who  said  to  him,  "  I  can  get  along  with  Hohenlohe,  and 
also  with  Ijiilow,  but  not  with  those  d — d  lawyers  in 
tlie  Foreign  (Office"  (Mlt  Hohenlohe  kann  ieh  auskonifnen, 
mit  B'dlmv  auch,  aher  mlt  dtesen  verdatninten  Juristen  im, 
Ausivdrtigen  Amt.,  nicht). 


82  THE   FIRST   IIA(;UE  CONFERENCE 

Jime  22. 

Up  at  four  o'clock  and  at  'ten  attended  a  session  of  the 
first  section  at  the  "  House  in  the  Wood."  Very  interest- 
ing were  the  discussions  regarding  bullets  and  asphyx- 
iating bombs.  As  to  the  former,  Sir  Jolui  Ardagh  of 
the  British  delegation  repelled  earnestly  the  charges 
made  regarding  the  British  bullets  used  in  India,  and 
offered  to  substitute  for  the  original  proposal  one  which 
certainly  would  be  much  more  effective  in  preventing 
unnecessary  suffering  and  death ;  but  tlie  Russians 
seemed  glad  to  score  a  point  against  Cireat  Britain, 
and  Sir  Jolni's  proposal  was  voted  down,  its  only  sup- 
port being  derived  from  our  own  delegation.  Captain 
Crozier,  our  military  delegate,  took  an  active  part  in 
supporting  Sir  John  Ardagh,  but  the  majority  agamst 
us  was  overwhelming. 

As  to  asphyxiating  bombs.  Captain  INIahan  spoke  at 
length  against  the  provision  to  forbid  them  :  his  ground 
bemg  that  not  the  slightest  thing  had  yet  been  done  look- 
ing to  such  an  invention  ;  that,  even  if  there  had  been, 
their  use  would  not  be  so  bad  as  the  use  of 'torpedoes 
against  ships  of  war;  that  asphyxiating  men  l)y  means  of 
deleterious  gases  was  no  worse  than  asi)hyxiating  them 
with  water;  indeed,  that  th('  former  was  tlie  less  dan- 
gerous of  the  two,  since  the  gases  used  might  simply  in- 
capacitate men  for  a  short  time,  while  the  blowing  up  of 
a  ship  of  war  means  death  to  all  or  nearly  all  of  those 
upon  it. 

To  this  it  was  answered  —  and,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  with 
force  —  that  asphyxiating  bombs  might  be  used  against 
towns  for  tlie  destruction  of  vast  luimbers  of  noncombat- 
ants,  including  women  and  children,  while  torpedoes  at 


THE   FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE  83 

sea  are  used  only  against  the  military  and  naval  forces 
of  the  enemy.  The  original  proposal  was  carried  l)y  a 
unanimous  vote,  save  ours.  I  am  not  satisfied  with  our 
attitude  on  this  question  ;  but  what  can  a  layman  do 
when  lie  has  against  him  the  foremost  contemporary 
military  and  naval  experts  ?  My  hope  is  that  the  United 
States  will  yet  stand  with  the  majority  on  the  record. 

I  stated  afterwards  in  a  bantering  way  to  Captain 
IVlahan,  as  well  as  others,  that  while  I  could  not  sup- 
port any  of  the  arguments  that  had  been  made  in  favor 
of  allowing  asphyxiating  bombs,  there  was  one  which 
somewhat  appealed  to  me  —  namely,  that  the  dread  of 
them  might  do  something  to  prevent  the  rush  of  the 
rural  population  to  the  cities,  and  the  aggregation  of  the 
poorer  classes  ui  them,  which  is  one  of  the  most  threaten- 
ing thhigs  to  modern  societ}-,  and  also  a  second  argu- 
ment that  such  bombs  would  bring  home  to  warlike 
stay-at-home  orators  and  writers  the  realities  of  war. 

At  noon  received  the  French  translation  of  our  memo- 
rial to  De  Staal,  but  found  it  very  imperfect  through- 
out, and  in  some  parts  absolutely  inadmissible ;  so  I 
worked  with  Baron  de  Bildt,  president  of  the  Swedish 
delegation  here,  all  the  afternoon  in  revising  it. 

At  six  the  American  delegation  met  and  chose  me  for 
their  orator  at  the  approaching  Grotius  festival  at  Delft. 
I  naturally  feel  proud  to  discharge  a  duty  of  this  kmd, 
and  can  put  my  heart  into  it,  for  Grotius  has  long  been 
to  me  almost  an  object  of  idolatry,  and  his  main  works 
a  subject  of  earnest  study.  There  are  few  men  in  his- 
tory whom  I  so  deeply  venerate.  Twenty  years  ago, 
when  minister  at  Berlm,  I  sent  an  emment  American 
artist  to  Holland  and  secured  admirable  copies  of  the 


84  THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

two  Ijest  portraits  of  the  great  man.  One  of  these  now 
hangs  m  the  Law  Library  of  Cornell  University,  and 
the  other  over  my  worktable  at  the  Berlin  Embassy. 

June  23. 

At  work  all  the  morning  on  letters  and  revising  final 
draft  of  memorial  on  immnnity  of  private  property  at  sea, 
and  Innched  afterwards  at  the  "  Honse  in  the  Wood" 
to  talk  it  over  with  Baron  de  Bildt. 

At  the  same  table  met  M.  de  Martens,  who  has  just 
returned  by  night  to  his  work  here,  after  presiding  a 
day  or  two  over  the  Venezuela  arbitration  tribunal  at 
Paris.  He  told  me  that  Sir  Richard  Webster,  in  opening 
the  case,  is  to  speak  for  sixteen  days,  and  De  Martens 
added  that  he  himself  had  read  our  entire  Venezuelan 
report,  as  well  as  the  other  documents  on  the  subject, 
which  form  quite  a  large  library.  And  yet  we  do  not 
include  men  like  him  in  "  the  working  classes "  ! 

In  the  evening  to  a  reception  at  the  house  of  ]\L  de 
Beaufort,  minister  of  foreign  affairs,  and  was  cordially 
greeted  by  him  and  his  wife,  both  promising  that  they 
would  accept  our  invitation  to  Delft.  I  took  into  the 
buffet  the  wife  of  the  present  Dutch  prime  mmister, 
who  also  expressed  great  interest  in  our  proposal,  and 
declared  her  intention  of  being  i)resent. 

Count  Zanini,  the  Italian  minister  and  delegate  here, 
o-ave  me  a  comical  account  of  two  speeches  in  the  session 
of  the  first  section  this  morning:  one  being  by  a  delegate 
from  Persia,  ]\Iirza  Riza  Khan,  who  is  minister  at  St. 
Petersburg.  His  Persian  Excellency  waxed  eloquent 
over  the  noble  qualities  of  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  and 
especially  over  his  sincerity  as  shown  by  the  fact  that 


THE   P^IRST   HAGUE  COXFEKEXCE  8.") 

when  his  Excellency  tumbled  from  his  horse  at  a  re- 
view, his  Majesty  sent  twice  to  inquire  after  his  health. 
The  whole  effect  upon  the  conference  was  to  provoke 
roars  of  laughter. 

But  the  great  matter  of  the  day  was  the  news,  which 
has  not  yet  been  made  public,  that  Prince  Hohenlohe,  the 
(lerman  chancellor,  has  c(mie  out  strongly  for  the  arbi- 
tration tribunal,  and  has  sent  instructions  here  accord- 
ingly. This  is  a  great  gain,  and  seems  to  remove  one 
of  the  w^orst  stumblingblocks.  But  we  will  have  to  pay 
for  this  removal,  probably,  b}'  giving  up  Sec.  10  of 
the  present  plan,  which  includes  a  system  of  obligatory 
arbitration  in  various  minor  matters,  —  a  system  which 
would  be  of  use  to  the  world  in  many  ways.  \\' hile  the 
American  delegation,  as  stated  in  my  letter  which  Holls 
took  to  Billow,  and  which  has  b^en  forwarded  to  the 
Emperor,  will  aid  in  throwing  out  of  the  arbitration  plan 
everything  of  an  obligatory  nature,  if  Germany  insists 
upon  it,  I  learn  that  the  Dutch  Government  is  much 
opposed  to  this  concession,  and  may  publicly  protest 
against  it. 

A  curious  \rcivt  of  the  means  used  in  bringing  about 
this  change  of  opinion  was  the  pastoral  letter,  elsewhere 
referred  to,  issued  by  the  Protestant  Episcopal  bishoj) 
of  Texas,  calling  for  prayers  throughout  the  state  for 
the  success  of  the  conference  in  its  efforts  to  diminish 
the  horrors  of  war.  This  pastoral  letter,  to  wliich  I  re- 
ferred in  my  letter  to  Minister  von  Billow,  I  intrusted  to 
Holls,  authorizing  him  to  use  it  as  he  thought  fit.  He 
showed  it  to  Prince  Hohenlohe,  and  the  latter,  although 
a  Roman  Catholic,  was  evidently  affected  by  it,  and  es- 
pecially by  tlie  deptli  and  extent  of  the  longing  for  peace 


86  THE   FIRST   HAGUE   CONFERENCE 

which  it  showed  It  is  perhaps  an  hiteresting  example  of 
an  indirect  "answer  to  prayer,"  since  it  uncloubteclly 
strengthened  the  feehngs  in  the  prince  chancellor's  mind 
which  led  him  to  favor  arbitration. 

June  24. 

Sent  to  M.  de  Staal,  as  president  of  the  conference,  the 
memorial  relatmg  to  the  exemption  of  private  property, 
not  contraband  of  war,  from  capture  on  the  high  seas. 
Devoted  the  morning  to  blocking  out  my  Grotius  address, 
and  afterwards  drove  with  Molls  to  Delft  to  look  ovei-  tlie 
ground  for  our  Fourth  of  July  festival.  The  town  hall 
is  interesting  and  contains,  among  other  portraits,  one 
which  is  evidently  a  good  likeness  of  Grotius ;  the  only 
difficulty  is  that,  for  our  intended  lunclieon,  the  rooms, 
tliough  beautiful,  seefti  inadequate. 

Thence  to  the  church,  and  after  looking  over  that  part 
of  it  near  the  monuments,  with  reference  to  the  Grotius 
ceremony,  went  into  the  organ  loft  Avith  the  organist. 
There  I  listened  for  nearly  an  hour  while  he  and  II oils 
played  finely  on  that  noble  instrument;  and  as  I  sat  and 
looked  down  over  the  church  and  upon  the  distant  monu- 
ments, the  old  historic  scenes  of  four  hundred  years  ago 
came  up  before  me,  with  memories  almost  overpowering 
of  my  first  visit  thirty -live  years  ago.  And  all  then  Avitli 
me  are  now  dead. 

June  25. 

At  nine  in  the  morning  off  with  Molls  to  Rotterdam, 
and  on  arriving  took  the  tram  through  the  city  to  the 
steamboat  wliarf,  going  thence  by  steamer  to  Dort.  Ar- 
rived,   just    before    the    close    of    service,    at    the    great 


THE  FIRST   HAGUE  CONFEREXCi:.  87 

church  where  various  sessions  of  the  synod  were  held. 
The  organ  was  very  fine ;  the  choir  stalls,  where  those 
wretched  theologians  wrangled  through  so  many  sessions 
and  did  so  much  harm  to  their  own  country  and  others, 
were  the  only  other  fine  things  in  the  church,  and  they 
were  much  dilapidated.  I  could  not  but  reflect  bitterly 
on  the  monstrous  evils  provoked  by  these  men  who  sat 
so  long  there  spuming  a  monstrous  theology  to  be  substi- 
tuted for  the  teachings  of  Christ  himself. 

Thence  back  to  The  Hague  and  to  Scheveningen,  and 
talked  over  conference  matters  with  Count  Miinster. 
lieceived  telegrams  from  Count  von  Billow  in  answer 
to  mine  congratulating  him  on  his  promotion,  also  one 
from  Baron  von  Mumm,  the  German  minister  at  Lux- 
emburg, who  goes  temporarily  to  Washmgton. 

June  26. 

At  work  all  the  morning  on  my  (Irotius  address. 
Lunched  at  the  "  House  in  the  AVood,"  and  walked  to 
town  with  sundry  delegates.  In  the  afternoon  went  to  a 
''tea"  at  the  house  of  Madame  Boreel  and  met  a  num- 
ber of  charming  people  ;  but  the  great  attraction  was  the 
house,  which  is  that  formerly  occupied  l)y  John  l)e  Witt 
—  that  from  which  he  went  to  prison  and  to  assassi- 
nation. Here  also  IVIotley  lived,  and  I  was  shown  the 
room  in  which  a  large  part  of  his  history  was  written, 
and  where  Queen  Sophia  used  to  discuss  Dutch  events 
and  personages  with  him. 

The  house  is  beautiful,  spacious  and  most  charmmgly 
decorated,  many  of  the  ornaments  and  paintings  having 
been  placed  there  in  the  time  of  De  Witt. 


88  THE  FIRST   HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

June  27. 

At  all  sorts  of  work  during  the  morning,  and  then,  on 
invitation  of  President  Low,  went  with  the  other  mem- 
bers of  the  delegation  to  Haarlem,  where  we  saw  the 
wonderful  portraits  by  Frans  Hals,  which  impressed  me 
more  than  ever,  and  heard  the  great  organ.  It  has  been 
rebuilt  since  I  was  there  thirty-live  years  ago ;  but  it  is 
still  the  same  great  clumsy  machine,  and  very  poorly 
played,  —  that  is,  with  no  spirit,  and  without  any  effort 
to  exhibit  anything  beyond  the  ordinary  effects  for  which 
any  little  church  organ  would  do  as  well. 

In  the  evening  dined  with  Count  Zanini,  the  Italian 
mmister  and  delegate,  and  discussed  French  matters  with 
Baron  d'Estournelles.  He  represents  the  best  type  of 
French  diplomatist,   and  is  in  every  way  attractive. 

Afterwards  to  Mr.  van  Karnebeek's  reception,  meeting- 
various  people  in  a  semisatisfactory  way. 

June  J9. 

In  the  morning,  in  order  to  work  off'  the  beginnings  of 
a  headache,  I  went  to  Rotterdam  and  walked  until  noon 
about  the  streets  and  places,  recalling  my  former  visit, 
which  came  very  vividly  before  me  as  I  gazed  upon  the 
statue  of  Erasmus,  and  thought  upon  his  life  here.  No 
man  in  history  has  had  more  persistent  injustice  done 
hhn.  If  my  life  were  long  enough  I  would  gladly  use 
my  great  collection  of  Erasmiana  in  illustrating  his  serv- 
ices to  the  world.  To  say  nothing  of  other  things,  the; 
modern  "  higher  criticism  "  has  its  roots  in  his  work. 

June  oO. 

Engaged  on  tlie  hnal  rc\isiou  of  my  (Irotius  speech, 
and  on  various  documents. 


THE  FIRST  HAGUE  COXFERENCE  89 

At  noon  to  the  "  House  in  the  Wood '"  for  kmch,  and 
afterwards  took  a  walk  in  the  grounds  witli  Bekliman,  the 
Roumanian  delegate,  who  explained  to  me  the  trouble  in 
Switzerland  over  the  vote  on  the  Red  Cross  Conference. 

It  apjjears  that  whereas  Switzerland  initiated  the  Red 
Cross  movement,  has  ever  since  cherished  it,  and  has 
been  urged  by  Italy  and  other  powers  to  take  still  fur- 
ther practical  measures  for  it,  the  Dutch  delegation  re- 
cently interposed,  secured  for  one  of  their  number  the 
presidency  of  the  special  conference,  and  thus  threw  out 
my  Berlin  colleague.  Colonel  Roth,  who  liad  been  pre- 
viously asked  to  take  the  position  and  had  ac(:e[)ted  it, 
with  the  result  that  tlie  whole  matter  has  been  taken  out 
of  the  hands  of  Switzerland,  where  it  justly  belonged,  and 
put  under  the  care  of  the  Netherlands.  This  has  provoked 
much  ill  feeling  in  Switzerland,  and  there  is  especial 
astonishment  at  the  fact  that  when  Beldiman  moved  an 
amendment  undoing  this  unjust  arrangement,  it  was  by 
some  misunderstanding  lost,  and  that  therefore  there  has 
been  perpetuated  what  seems  much  like  an  injustice 
against  Switzerland.  I  promised  to  exert  myself  to  have 
the  matter  recti  tied  so  far  as  the  American  delegation 
was  concerned,  and  later  was  successful  in  doing  so. 

In  the  evening  dined  at  Minister  Newel's.  Sat  between 
Minister  Okolicsanyi  of  the  Austrian  delegation,  and 
Count  Welsersheimb,  the  chairman  of  that  delegation, 
and  had  interesting  talks  with  tliem,  with  the  Duke  of 
Tetuan  and  others.-  It  appears  that  the  Duke,  who  is 
a  very  charmhig,  kindly  man,  has,  like  myself,  a  passion 
both  for  cathedral  architecture  and  for  organ  music ;  he 
dwelt  mucli  u[)on  Burgos,  which  he  called  the  gem  of 
Spanish  cathedrals. 


90  THE   FIRST   HAGUE  CONFEREXCE 

Thence  to  the  final  reception  at  the  house  of  M.  de 
Beaufort,  minister  of  foreign  affairs,  who  showed  me  a 
contemporary  portrait  of  Grotius  which  displays  tlie  traits 
observable  in  the  copies  which  Burleigh  painted  for  me 
twenty  years  ago  at  Amsterdam  and  Leyden.  Talked 
with  Sir  Julian  Pauncefote  regarding  the  Swiss  matter ; 
he  had  abstained  from  voting  for  the  reason  that  he  had 
no  instructions  in  the  premises. 

July  2. 

In  the  morning  Major  Allen,  military  attaclie  of  our 
embassy  at  Berlin,  arrived,  bringing  the  (irotius  wreath. 
Under  Secretary  Hay's  permission,  I  liad  given  to  one 
of  the  best  Berlin  silversmiths  virtually  carte  blanche,  and 
the  result  is  most  satisfactory.  The  wreath  is  very  large, 
being  made  up,  on  one  side,  of  a  laurel  brancli  with  leaves 
of  frosted  silver  and  berries  of  gold,  and,  on  the  other,  of 
an  oak  branch  with  silver  leaves  and  gold  acorns,  both 
l)ouglis  being  tied  together  at  the  bottom  by  a  large  knot 
of  ribbon  in  silver  gilded,  bearing  tlie  arms  of  the  Neth- 
erlands and  the  United  States  on  enameled  shields,  and 
an  inscription  as  follows : 

To  the  Memory  of  Hugo  Grotius  ; 

In  Keverence  and  (Iratitude, 

From  the  United  States  of  America ; 

On  the  Occasion  of  the  International  Peace  Conf(;;rence 

of  The  Hague. 

July  4th,  1899. 

It  is  a  superb  piece  of  work,  and  its  ebony  case,  with 
silver  clasps,  and  bearing  a  silver  shield  with  suitable 
inscription,  is  also  perfect:  tlie  wlK)le  thing  attracts  most 
favorable  attention. 


V 

July  4. 

ON  this  day  the  American  delegation  invited  their 
colleagues  to  celebrate  our  national  anniversary  at 
the  toml)  of  Grotins,  lirst  in  the  great  churcli,  and  after- 
wards in  the  town  hall  of  Delft.  Speeches  were  made  by 
the  minister  of  foreign  affairs  of  the  Netherlands,  De 
Beaufort;  by  their  first  delegate,  Van  Karnebeek;  by  Mr. 
Asser,  one  of  their  leading  jurists;  by  the  burgomaster  of 
Delft ;  and  by  Baron  de  Bildt,  chairman  of  the  Swedish 
delegation  and  minister  at  Rome,  who  read  a  telegram 
from  the  King  of  Sweden  referring  to  Grotius'  relations 
to  the  Swedish  diplomatic  service ;  as  well  as  by  Presi- 
dent Low  of  Columbia  University  and  myself :  the  duty 
being  intrusted  to  me  of  laying  the  wreath  upon  Gro- 
tius' tomb  and  making  the  address  with  reference  to  it. 
As  all  the  addresses  are  to  be  printed,  I  shall  give  no 
more  attention  to  them  here.  A  very  large  audience  was 
present,  embracing  the  ambassadors  and  principal  mem- 
bers of  the  conference,  the  Netherlands  ministers  of  state, 
professors  from  the  various  universities  of  the  Nether- 
lands, and  a  large  body  of  other  invited  guests. 

The  music  of  the  chimes,  of  the  organ  and  of  the  royal 
choir  of  one  hundred  voices  was  very  fine  ;  and,  although 
the  day  was  stormy,  with  a  high  wind  and  driving  rain, 
everything  went  off  well. 

After  the  exercises  in  the  church,  our  delegation  gave 
a  breakfast,  which  was  very  satisfactory.    About  three 

91 


92  THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

hundred  and  fifty  persons  sat  down  to  the  tables  at  the 
town  hall,  and  one  hundred  other  guests,  includmg  the 
musicians,  at  the  leading  restaurant  in  tlie  place.  In 
the  afternoon  the  Americans  gathered  at  the  reception 
given  by  our  minister,  Mr.  Newel,  and  his  wife,  and  in 
the  evening  there  was  a  large  attendance  at  an  "Ameri- 
can concert "  given  by  the  orchestra  at  the  great  hall  in 
Scheveningen. 

July  o. 

Early  in  the  morning  to  the  second  committee  of  the 
conference,  where  I  spoke  in  behalf  of  the  lieldiman 
resolution,  doing  justice  to  Switzerland  as  regards  the 
continuance  of  the  Red  Cross  hiterests  in  Swiss  hands ; 
and  on  going  to  a  vote  we  were  successful. 

Then,  the  question  of  a  proper  dealing  with  our  memo- 
rial regarding  the  innnunity  of  private  property  on  the 
high  seas  coming  u[),  I  spoke  in  favor  of  referring  it 
to  the  general  conference,  and  gave  the  reasons  why  it 
should  not  simply  be  dropped  out  as  not  coming  withm 
the  subjects  contemplated  in  the  call  to  the  conference. 
Though  my  speech  was  in  French,  it  went  off  better  than 
I  expected. 

In  the  afternoon,  at  the  full  conference,  the  same  sub- 
ject came;  u}) ;  and  tlien,  after  a  preface  in  French,  asking 
permission  to  speak  in  English,  I  made  my  speech,  which, 
probably,  three  quarters  of  all  the  delegates  understood, 
but,  at  my  request,  a  summary  of  it  was  afterwards  given 
in  French  by  Mr.  van  Karnebeek. 

The  occasion  of  this  speech  was  my  seconding  the  mo- 
tion, made  in  a  very  friendly  manner  by  jNI.  de  Martens, 
to  refer  the  matter  to  a  future  conference ;  but  I  went 


THE   FIRST  HAGUE  CONFEREXCE  93 

into  tlie  merits  of  the  general  subject  to  show  its  claims 
upon  the  various  nations,  etc.,  etc.,  though  not,  of  course, 
as  fully  as  I  would  have  clone  liad  the  matter  been  fully 
under  discussion.  My  speech  was  very  well  received, 
and  will,  I  hope,  aid  in  keeping  the  subject  alive. 

In  the  afternoon  drove  to  Ryswyck,  to  the  house  of 
M.  Cornets  De  Groot,  the  living  representative  of  the 
Grotius  family.  The  house  and  grounds  were  very  pleas- 
ant, but  the  great  attraction  was  a  collection  of  relics  of 
Grotius,  including  many  manuscripts  from  his  own  hand, 
—  among  these  a  catechism  for  his  children,  written  in  the 
prison  of  Loewenstein ;  with  official  documents,  signed 
and  sealed,  connected  with  the  public  transactions  of  his 
time ;  also  letters  which  passed  between  him  and  Oxen- 
stiern,  the  great  Swedish  chancellor,  some  in  Latin  and 
some  in  other  languages ;  besides  sundry  poems.  There 
were  also  a  multitude  of  portraits,  engravings  and 
documents  relating  to  Ohlen-Barneveld  and  others  of 
G  rotius'  contemporaries. 

The  De  Groot  famify  gave  us  a  most  hearty  reception, 
introducmg  their  little  girl,  who  is  the  latest-born  de- 
scendant of  Grotius,  and  sliowing  us  various  household 
relics  of  their  great  ancestor,  including  cups,  glasses  and 
the  like.  Mr.  De  Groot  also  gave  me  some  curious  infor- 
mation regarding  him  which  I  did  not  before  possess ; 
and,  among  other  things,  told  me  that  when  Grotius' 
body  was  transferred,  shortly  after  his  death,  from  Ros- 
tock to  Delft,  the  coffin  containing  it  was  stoned  by  a  mob 
at  Rotterdam  ;  also  that  at  the  unveiling  of  the  statue 
of  Grotius  in  front  of  the  church  at  Delft,  a  few  years 
ago,  the  high-church  Calvinists  would  not  allow  the  chil- 
dren from  their  church  schools  to  johi  the  other  children 


94  THE  FIKST   HAGUE  COXFERENCE 

in  singing  hymns.  The  old  bitterness  of  the  extreme 
Calvinistic  party  toward  their  great  compatriot  was  thus 
still  exhibited,  and  tlie  remark  was  made  at  the  time,  by 
a  member  of  it,  that  the  statue  was  perfectly  true  to  life, 
since  ''  its  back  was  turned  toward  the  church  "  ;  to  which 
a  reply  was  made  that  "  (irotius'  face  in  the  statue,  like 
his  living  face,  was  steadily  turned  toward  justice."  This 
latter  remark  had  reference  to  tlie  fact  that  a  court  is 
held  in  the  city  hall,  toward  which  the  statue  is  turned. 

In  the  evening  to  a  dunier  given  by  Mr.  Piersoon,  min- 
ister of  finance  and  prime  minister  of  the  Netherlands, 
to  our  delegation  and  to  his  colleagues  of  the  Dutch  min- 
istry. Everything  passed  off  well,  Mr.  Piersoon  propos- 
ing a  toast  to  the  health  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  to  which  I  replied  in  a  toast  to  the  Queen  of  the 
Netherlands,  In  tlie  course  of  his  speech  Mr.  Piersoon 
thanked  us  for  our  tribute  to  (Irotius,  and  showed  really 
deep  feeling  on  the  subject.  Tliere  is  no  doubt  that  we 
have  struck  a  responsive  chord  in  the  hearts  of  all  liberal 
and  thoughtful  men  and  women  of  the  Netherlands; 
from  every  quarter  come  evidences  of  this. 

A  remark  of  his,  rcgardmg  arbitration,  especially 
pleased  us.  He  said  that  the  arbitration  plan,  as  it 
had  come  from  the  great  committee,  was  like  a  baby : 
—  apparently  lielpless,  and  of  very  little  value,  unable 
to  do  much,  and  rc(iuiring  careful  luirsing;  but  that  it 
had  one  great  merit:  —  it  ivoidd  (jfow. 

This  I  believe  to  be  a  very  accurate  statement  of  the 
situation.  The  general  feelmg  of  the  conference  becomes 
better  and  l)etter.  More  and  more  the  old  skepticism  has 
departed,  and  m  place  of  it  has  come  a  strong  ambition 
to  have  a  share  in  what  we  are  beginning  to  believe  may 


THE  FIRST  HAGUE  COXFEREXCE  95 

be  a  most  honorable  contribution  to  the  peace  of  the 
world.  I  have  never  taken  part  in  more  earnest  discus- 
sions than  those  which  during  the  last  two  weeks  have 
occupied  us,  and  especially  those  relating  to  arbitration. 
I  think  I  may  say,  without  assuming  too  much,  that  our 
Grotius  celebration  has  been  a  contribution  of  some  value 
to  this  growth  of  earnestness.  It  has,  if  I  am  not  greatly 
mistaken,  revealed  to  the  conference,  still  more  clearly 
than  before,  the  fact  that  it  is  a  historical  body  intrusted 
with  a  matter  of  vast  importance  and  difficulty,  and  that 
we  shall  be  judged  in  history  with  reference  to  this  fact. 

July  6. 

At  5.30  P.M.  off  in  special  train  with  the  entire  con- 
ference to  Amsterdam.  On  arriving,  we  found  a  long 
train  of  court  carriages  which  took  us  to  the  palace,  the 
houses  on  each  side  throughout  the  entii'e  distance  being 
decorated  with  flags  and  banners,  and  the  streets  crowded 
with  men,  women  and  children.  We  were  indeed  a  brave 
show,  since  all  of  us,  except  the  members  of  our  Ameri- 
can delegation,  wore  gorgeous  uniforms  with  no  end  of 
ribbons,  stai-s  and  insignia  of  various  offices  and  orders. 

On  reaching  our  destination,  we  were  received  by  the 
Queen  and  Queen  mother,  and  shortly  afterwards  went  in 
to  dinner.  With  the  possible  exception  of  a  lord  mayor's 
feast  at  the  Guildhall,  it  was  the  most  imposing  thing  of 
the  kind  that  I  have  ever  seen.  The  great  banqueting 
hall,  dating  from  the  glorious  days  of  the  Dutch  Republic, 
is  probably  the  largest  and  most  sumptuous  in  continental 
Europe,  and  the  table  furniture,  decorations  and  dinner 
were  worthy  of  it.  About  two  hundred  and  fifty  persons, 
includhiu:   all   the   members   of  the   conference   and   the 


96  THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

higher  officials  of  the  kingxlom,  sat  down,  the  Queen  and 
Queen  mother  at  the  head  of  the  table,  and  about  them 
the  ambassadors  and  presidents  of  delegations.  My  own 
place,  being  very  near  the  Majesties,  gave  me  an  ex- 
cellent opportunity  to  see  and  hear  everything.  Toward 
the  close  of  the  banquet  the  young  Queen  arose  and 
addressed  us,  so  easily  and  naturally  that  I  should  have 
supposed  her  speech  extemporaneous  had  I  not  seen  her 
consulting  her  manuscript  just  before  rismg.  Her  man- 
ner was  perfect,  and  her  voice  so  clear  as  to  be  heard 
by  every  one  in  the  hall.  Everything  considered,  it  was 
a  remarkable  effort  for  a  young  lady  of  seventeen.  At 
its  close  an  excellent  reply  was  made  by  our  president, 
M.  de  Staal ;  and  soon  afterwards,  when  we  had  passed 
into  the  great  gallery,  there  came  an  even  more  striking 
exhibition  of  the  powers  of  her  youthful  Majesty,  for  she 
conversed  with  every  member  of  the  conference,  and  with 
the  utmost  ease  and  simplicity.  To  me  she  returned  thanks 
for  the  Grotius  tribute,  and  in  very  cordial  terms,  as  did 
later  also  the  Queen  mother ;  and  I  cannot  but  believe 
that  they  were  sincere,  since,  three  months  later,  at  the 
festival  given  them  at  Potsdam,  they  both  renewed  their 
acknowledgments  in  a  cordial  way  which  showed  that 
their  patriotic^  liearts  were  pleased.  Various  leading  men 
of  the  Netherlands  and  of  the  conference  also  thanked 
us,  and  one  of  them  said,  ''  You  Americans  liave  taught 
us  a  lesson  ;  for,  uistead  of  a  mere  display  of  fireworks 
to  the  rabble  of  a  single  city,  or  a  ball  or  concert  to 
a  few  officials,  you  have,  in  this  solemn  recognition  of 
Grotius,  paid  the  highest  compliment  possible  to  the 
entire  people  of  the  Netherlands,  past,  present  and  to 
come." 


THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE  97 

July  7. 

In  the  morning  to  the  great  hall  of  the  "  House  in 
the  Wood,"  where  the  "  editing  committee  "  {comite  de  re- 
dactioYi)  reported  to  the  third  committee  of  the  conference 
the  whole  arbitration  plan.  It  struck  me  most  favorably, 
—  indeed,  it  surprised  me,  though  I  have  kept  watch  of 
every  step.  I  am  convinced  that  it  is  better  than  any  of 
the  plans  originally  submitted,  not  excepting  our  own. 
It  will  certainly  be  a  gain  to  the  world. 

At  the  close  of  the  session  we  adjourned  until  Monday, 
the  17th,  in  order  that  the  delegates  may  get  instructions 
from  their  various  governments  regarding  the  signing  of 
the  protocols,  agreements,  etc. 

Jidy  8. 

In  the  evening  dined  with  M.  de  Mier,  the  Mexican 
minister  at  Paris  and  delegate  here,  and  had  a  very  in- 
teresting talk  with  M.  Raffalovitch,  to  whom  I  spoke 
plainly  regardmg  the  only  road  to  disarmament.  I  told 
him  that  he  must  know  as  well  as  any  one  that  there  is 
a  vague  dread  throughout  Europe  of  the  enormous  growth 
of  Russia,  and  that  he  must  acknowledge  that,  whether 
just  or  not,  it  is  perfectly  natural.  He  acquiesced  in  this, 
and  I  then  went  on  to  say  that  the  Emperor  Nicholas  had 
before  him  an  opportunity  to  do  more  good  and  make  a 
nobler  reputation  than  any  other  czar  had  ever  done, 
not  excepting  Alexander  II  with  his  emancipation  of 
the  serfs  ;  that  I  had  thouglit  very  seriously  of  writmg, 
at  the  close  of  the  conference,  to  M.  Pobyedonostzeff,  pre- 
senting to  him  the  reasons  why  Russia  might  well  make 
a  practical  beginning  of  disarmament  by  dismissing  to 
their  homes,  or  placing  on  public  works,  say  two  hundred 


98  THE  FIRST   IIAGL'K  CONFERENCE 

thousand  of  her  .soldiers ;  that  this  would  leave  her  all 
the  soldiers  she  needs,  and  more ;  that  he  must  know,  as 
everybody  knows,  that  no  otlier  power  dreams  of  attack- 
ing Russia  or  dares  to  do  so ;  that  there  would  be  no 
disadvantage  in  such  a  dismissal  of  troops  to  peaceful 
avocations,  but  every  advantage  ;  and  that  if  it  were 
done  the  result  would  be  that,  in  less  than  forty  years, 
Russia  would  become,  by  this  husbanding  of  lier  re- 
sources, the  most  powerful  nation  on  tlie  eastern  continent, 
and  able  to  carry  out  any  just  policy  which  she  might 
desire.  I  might  have  added  that  one  advantage  of  such 
a  reduction  would  certainly  be  less  inclination  by  the  war 
party  at  St.  Petersburg  to  plunge  into  military  adven- 
tures. (Had  Russia  thus  reduced  her  army  she  Avould 
never  have  sunk  into  the  condition  in  which  she  finds 
herself  now  (1905),  as  I  revise  these  lines.  Instead  of 
sending  Alexeieff  to  make  war,  she  would  have  allowed 
Witte  to  make  peace  —  peace  on  a  basis  of  justice  to 
Japan,  and  a  winter  access  to  the  Pacific,  under  proper 
safeguards,  for  herself.) 

Raffalovitch  seemed  to  acquiesce  fully  in  my  view,  ex- 
cept as  to  the  number  of  soldiers  to  be  released,  saying 
that  fifty  or  sixty  thousand  would  do  perfectly  well  as 
showing  that  Russia  is  in  earnest. 

He  is  one  of  the  younger  men  of  Russia,  but  has  very 
decided  ability,  and  this  lie  has  shown  not  only  in  his 
secretaryship  of  the  conference,  but  in  several  of  his 
works  on  financial  and  other  public  questions  published 
in  Paris,  which  have  secured  for  him  a  corresponding- 
membership  of  the  French  Institute. 

It  is  absolutely  clear  in  my  mind  that,  if  anything  is  to 
be  done  toward  disarmament,  a  practical  beginning  must 


THE   FIRST   HA(iUE  CONFERENCE  99 

be  made  by  the  Czar ;  but  the  unfortunate  tiling  is  that 
with,  no  (h)ubt,  fairly  good  intentions,  he  is  weak  and  ill 
informed.  The  dreadful  mistake  he  is  making  in  violat- 
ing the  oath  sworn  by  his  predecessors  and  himself  to 
Finland  is  the  result  of  this  weakness  and  ignorance ; 
and  should  he  attempt  to  diminish  his  overgrown  army 
he  would,  in  all  probability,  be  overborne  by  the  military 
people  about  him,  and  by  petty  difficulties  which  they 
would  suggest,  or,  if  necessary,  create.  It  must  be  con- ' 
fessed  that  there  is  one  danger  in  any  attempted  disarma- 
ment, and  this  is  that  the  military  clique  might,  to 
prevent  it,  plunge  the  empire  into  a  war. 

The  Emperor  is  surrounded  mainly  by  inferior  men. 
Under  the  shade  of  autocracy  men  of  independent 
strength  rarely  flourish.  Indeed,  I  find  that  the  opinion 
reffardiner  Russian  statesmen  which  1  formed  in  Russia 
is  confirmed  by  old  diplomatists,  of  the  best  judgment, 
whom  I  meet  liere.  One  of  them  said  to  me  the  other  day : 
"  There  is  no  greater  twaddle  than  all  the  talk  about 
farseeing  purposes  and  measures  by  Russian  statesmen. 
They  are  generally  weak,  influenced  by  minor,  and  espe- 
cially by  personal,  considerations,  and  inferior  to  most 
men  in  similar  positions  in  the  other  great  governments 
of  Europe.  The  chancellor.  Prince  Gorchakoff,  of 
whom  so  much  has  been  said,  was  a  weak,  vain  man, 
whom  Bismarck  found  it  generally  very  easy  to  deal 
with." 

As  to  my  own  experience,  I  think  many  of  those 
whom  1  saw  were  far  from  the  best  of  their  kind  with 
whom  I  have  had  to  do.  I  have  never  imagined  a 
human  being  in  the  position  of  minister  of  the  interior 
of  a  great  nation  so  utterly  futile  as  the  person  who  held 


100  THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

that  place  at  St.  Petersburg  in  my  time ;  and  the  same 
may  be  said  of  several  others  whom  I  met  there  in  high 
places.  There  are  a  few  strong  men,  and,  unfortunately, 
Pobyedonostzeff  is  one  of  them.  Luckily,  Witte,  the 
minister  of  finance,  is  another. 

July  10. 

The  evil  which  I  dreaded,  as  regards  the  formation  of 
public  opinion  in  relation  to  the  work  of  our  conference, 
is  becoming  realized.  The  London  Spectator,  just  re- 
ceived, contains  a  most  disheartening  article,  ''  The  Peace 
Conference  a  Failure,"  with  an  additional  article,  more 
fully  developed,  to  the  same  effect.  Nothing  could 
be  more  unjust ;  but,  on  account  of  the  Spectator  s 
''  moderation,"  it  will  greatly  influence  public  opinion, 
and  doubtless  prevent,  to  some  extent,  the  calling  of 
future  conferences  needed  to  develop  tlie  good  work 
done  in  this.  Fortunately  the  correspondent  of  the 
Ti7nes  gives  a  better  example,  and  shows,  in  his  excel- 
lent letters,  what  has  been  accomplished  here.  The  New 
York  Herald,  also,  is  thus  far  taking  the  right  view,  and 
maintaming  it  with  some  earnestness. 

July  17. 

This  morning,  at  ten,  to  the  "  House  in  the  Wood"  to 
li(!ar  Mr.  van  Karnebeek's  report  on  disarmament,  check- 
ing invention,  etc.,  before  the  session  of  connnittee 
No.  L  It  was  sti'ongly  attacked,  and  was  left  in  shreds: 
the  whole  subject  is  evidently  too  immature  and  com- 
plicated to  be  dealt  with  dui'ing  the  present  conference. 

In  the  afternoon  came  up  an  especially  interesting 
matter  in  the  session  of  the  arbitration  committee,  the 


THE  FIRST   HAGUE  CONFERENCE  101 

occasion  being  a  report  of  the  snbcommittee.  Among 
the  points  which  most  interested  us  as  Americans  was 
a  provision  for  an  appeal  from  the  decision  of  the  arbi- 
tration tribunal  on  the  discovery  of  new  facts. 

De  Martens  of  Russia  spoke  with  great  force  against 
such  right  of  a})peal,  and  others  took  ground  with  him. 
Holls  really -distinguished  himself  by  a  telling  speech  on 
tlie  f)tlier  side  —  which  is  the  American  side,  that  feature 
having  been  present  in  our  original  instructions ;  Messrs. 
Asser  and  Karnebeek  both  spoke  for  it  effectively,  and 
the  final  decision  was  virtually  in  our  favor,  for  ]Mr. 
Asser's  compromise  was  adopted,  which  really  gives  us 
the  case. 

Tlie  Siamese  representatives  requested  that  the  time 
during  \vhi(;h  an  appeal  might  be  allowed  should  be  six 
instead  of  three  months,  whic^li  we  had  named;  but  it 
was  finally  made  a  matter  of  adjustment  between  the 
parties. 

July  18. 

The  American  delegation  met  at  ten,  when  a  cable 
message  from  the  State  Department  was  read  authoriz- 
ing us  to  sign  the  protocol. 

July  19. 

Field  day  in  the  arbitration  connnittee.  A  decided 
sensation  was  produced  by  vigorous  speeches  by  my  Ber- 
lin colleague,  Beldiman,  of  the  Roumanian  delegation, 
and  by  Servian,  Greek  and  other  delegates,  against  the 
provision  for  commissiotis  cCenquete,  —  De  Martens,  Des- 
camps  and  others  making  vigorous  speeches  in  behalf 
of  them.    It  looked  as  if  the  Balkan  states  were  likely 


102  THE  FIRST   IIACiUE  CONFERENCE 

to  withdraw  from  the  conference  if  the  commission  tVen- 
qtiete  feature  was  insisted  upon :  they  are  evidently 
afraid  that  sucli  ''  examining  connnissions ''  may  be  sent 
within  their  boundaries  by  some  of  their  big  neighbors  — 
Russia,  for  example  —  to  spy  out  the  land  and  start 
intrigues.    The  whole  matter  was  put  over. 

In  the  evening  to  Count  Mimsters  dinner  at  Scheven- 
ingen,  and  had  a  very  interesting  talk  on  conference  mat- 
ters with  Sir  Julian  Pauncefote,  finding  that  in  most 
things  we  shall  be  able  to  stand  together  as  the  crisis 
approaches. 

July  20. 

For  several  days  past  I  have  been  preparing  a  pos- 
sible speech  to  be  made  in  signing  the  protocol,  etc., 
which,  if  not  used  for  that  purpose,  may  be  published, 
and,  perhaps,  aid  in  keeping  public  opinion  in  the  right 
line  as  regards  the  work  of  tlie  conference  after  it  has 
closed. 

In  the  afternoon  to  the  "  House  in  the  Wood,"  the 
committee  on  arl)itration  meeting  again.  More  speeches 
were  made  by  the  Bulgarians  and  Servians,  who  are  still 
up  in  arms,  fearing  that  the  commission  cTen<piefe  means 
intervention  by  the  great  states  in  their  affairs.  Speeches 
to  allay  their  fears  wei-e  made  by  Count  Nigra,  Dr.  Zorn, 
Holls  and  Leon  Bourgeois.  Zorn  spoke  in  (lerman  with 
excellent  effect,  as  did  Holls  in  English ;  Nigra  was  really 
impressive ;  and  Bourgeois,  from  the  chair,  gave  us  a 
specimen  of  first-rate  French  oratory.  He  made  a  most 
earnest  appeal  to  the  delegates  of  the  Balkan  states,  show- 
ing them  that  by  such  a  system  of  arbitration  as  is  now 
proposed  the  lesser  powers  would   be  the  very  first  to 


THE  FIRST  HAGUE  C0NFERE2s^CE  103 

profit,  and   he    appealed   to  their  loyalty  to   humanity. 
The  speech  was  greatly  and  justly  applauded. 

The  Balkan  delegates  are  gradually  and  gracefully 
yielding. 

Jnly  21. 

In  the  morning  to  the  "  House  in  the  Wood,"  where  a 
plenary  session  of  the  conference  was  held.  It  was  a 
field  day  on  explosive,  flattening  and  expanding  bullets, 
etc.  Our  Captain  Crozier,  who  evidently  knows  more 
about  the  subject  than  anybody  else  here,  urged  a  dec- 
laration of  the  principle  that  balls  should  be  not  more 
deadly  or  cruel  than  is  absolutely  necessary  to  put  sol- 
diers hors  de  comhat ;  but  the  committee  had  reported  a 
resolution  which,  Crozier  insists,  opens  the  door  to  worse 
missiles  than  those  at  present  used.  ]\lany  and  earnest 
speeches  were  made.  I  made  a  short  speech,  moving  to 
refer  the  matter  back  to  the  committee,  with  instructions 
to  harmonize  and  combine  the  two  ideas  in  one  article  — 
that  is,  the  idea  which  the  article  now  expresses,  and 
Crozier's  idea  of  stating  the  general  principle  to  which 
the  bullets  should  conform  —  namely,  that  of  not  making 
a  wound  more  cruel  than  necessary ;  but  the  amendment 
was  lost. 

Jnly  22. 

Sir  Julian  Pauncefote  called  to  discuss  witli  us  the 
signing  of  the  Aete  Final.  There  seems  to  be  general 
doubt  as  to  wdiat  is  the  best  manner  of  signing  the  con- 
ventions, declarations,  etc.,  and  all  remains  in  the  air. 

In  the  morning  the  American  delegation  met  and  Cap- 
tain Mahan  threw  in  a  bomb  regarding  Art.  27,  which 


104  THE  FIRST  HAGUE   CONFERENCE 

requires  that  when  any  two  parties  to  tlie  conference  are 
drifting  into  war,  the  other  powers  should  consider  it  a 
duty  (^devoir')  to  remind  them  of  the  arbitration  tribunal, 
etc.  He  thinks  that  this  infrmges  the  American  doctrine 
of  not  entangling  ourselves  in  the  affairs  of  foreign  states, 
and  will  prevent  the  ratification  of  the  convention  by 
the  United  States  Senate.  This  aroused  earnest  debate, 
Captain  jNIahan  insisting  upon  the  omission  of  the  word 
devoir,  and  Dr.  Holls  defending  the  article  as  reported 
by  the  subcommittee,  of  which  he  is  a  member,  and  con- 
tending that  the  peculiar  interests  of  America  could  be 
protected  by  a  reservation.  P'inally,  the  delegation  voted 
to  insist  upon  the  insertion  of  the  qualifying  words, 
autant  que  Jes  circonstances  per7nettent,  but  tliis  decision 
was  afterwards  abandoned. 

Juli/  23. 

Met  at  our  iSIinister  Newel's  supper  Sir  Henry  How- 
ard, who  told  me  that  the  present  Dutch  ministry,  with 
Piersoon  at  its  head  and  De  Beaufort  as  mmister  of  foreign 
affairs,  is  in  a  very  bad  way ;  that  its  "  subserviency  to 
Italy,"  in  opposition  to  the  demands  of  the  Vatican  for 
admittance  into  the  conference,  and  its  difficulties  with 
the  socialists  and  others,  arising  from  the  police  measures 
taken  against  Armenian,  Fiiniish,  New  Turkish  and 
other  orators  who  have  wished  to  come  here  and  make 
the  conference  and  the  city  a  l)ear  garden,  have  led  both 
the  extreme  parties  —  tliat  is,  the  solid  Roman  Catholic 
party  on  one  side,  and  the  pretended  votaries  of  liberty 
on  the  other  —  to  hate  the  ministry  equally.  He  thinks 
that  they  will  join  hands  and  oust  the  ministry  just  as 
soon  as  the  conference  is  over. 


THE   FIRST   HAGUE  COXFEKENCE  105 

Some  allowance  is  to  be  made  for  the  fact  that  Sir 
Henry  is  a  Roman  Catholic  :  while  generally  liberal,  he 
evidently  looks  at  many  questions  from  the  point  of 
view  of  his  church.-^ 

July  24. 

For  some  days  —  in  fact,  ever  since  Captain  Malum 
on  the  22d  called  attention  to  Art.  27  of  the  arbitration 
convention  as  likely  to  be  considered  an  infringement 
of  the  Monroe  doctrine  —  our  American  delegation 
has  been  greatly  per[)lexed.  We  have  been  trying  to 
induce  the  French,  who  proposed  Art.  27,  and  who  are 
as  much  attached  to  it  as  is  a  hen  to  her  one  chick,  to 
give  it  up,  or,  at  least,  to  allow  a  limiting  or  explanatory 
clause  to  be  placed  with  it.  Various  clauses  of  this  sort 
have  been  proposed.  The  article  itself  makes  it  the  duty 
of  the  other  signator}^  powers,  when  an}^  two  nations 
are  evidently  drifting  toward  war,  to  remind  these  two 
nations  that  the  arbitration  tribunal  is  open  to  them. 
Notliing  can  be  more  simple  and  natural ;  but  we  fear 
lest,  when  the  convention  comes  up  for  ratification  in 
the  United  States  Senate,  some  oversensitive  patriot  may 
seek  to  defeat  it  by  insisting  that  it  is  really  a  violation 
of  time-honored  American  policy  at  home  and  abroad  — 
the  policy  of  not  entangling  ourselves  in  the  affairs  of 
foreign  nations,  on  one  side,  and  of  not  allowing  them 
to  interfere  in  our  affairs,  on  the  other. 

At  twelve  this  day  our  delegation  gave  a  large  lunch- 
eon at  the  Oude  Doelen  —  among  those  present  being 

1  As  it  turned  out,  he  was  right :  the  ministry  was  ousted,  but  not  so  soon 
as  he  expected,  for  the  catastrophe  did  not  arrive  until  about  two  years  later. 
Then  came  in  a  coalition  of  high  Calvinists  and  Roman  Catholics  which 
brought  in  the  Kuyper  ministry. 


106  THE  FIRST   HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

Ambassadors  de  Staal,  Count  Nigra  and  Sir  Julian 
Pauncefote,  Bourgeois,  Karnebeek,  Easily,  Baron  d'Es- 
tournelles,  Baron  de  Bildt  and  others — to  discuss  means 
of  getting  out  of  the  above-mentioned  difficulty.  A  most 
earnest  effort  was  made  to  induce  the  French  to  allow 
some  such  modification  as  has  been  put  into  other  articles 

—  namely,  the  words,  autant  que  possible,  or  some  limit- 
ing clause  to  the  same  effect ;  but  neither  Bourgeois  nor 
D'Estournelles,  representing  France,  would  think  of  it 
for  a  moment.  Bourgeois,  as  the  head  of  the  French 
delegation,  spoke  again  and  again,  at  great  length. 
Among  other  thmgs,  he  gave  us  a  very  long  disquisi- 
tion on  the  meaning  of  devoir  as  it  stands  in  the  article 

—  a  disquisition  which  showed  tliat  the  Jesuits  are  not 
the  only  skillful  casuists  in  the  world. 

I  then  presented  my  project  of  a  declaration  of  the 
American  doctrine  to  be  made  by  us  on  signing.  It  had 
been  scratched  off  with  a  pencil  in  the  morning,  hastily  ; 
but  it  was  well  received  by  Bourgeois,  D'Estournelles 
and  all  the  others. 

Later  we  held  a  meeting  of  our  own  delegation,  when, 
to  my  project  of  a  declaration  stating  that  nothing  con- 
tained in  any  part  of  the  convention  signed  here  should 
be  considered  as  requiring  us  to  intrude,  mingle  or  en- 
tangle ourselves  in  European  politics  or  internal  affairs, 
Low  made  an  excellent  addition  to  the  effect  that  nothing 
should  1)(^  considered  to  re(}uire  any  abandonment  of  the 
traditioiud  attitude  of  the  United  States  toward  ques- 
tions purely  American ;  and,  with  slight  verbal  changes, 
this  combination  was  adopted. 


THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE  107 

July  25. 

All  night  long  I  have  been  tossing  about  in  my  bed 
and  thinking  of  our  declaration  of  the  Monroe  doctrine 
to  be  brought  before  the  conference  to-day.  We  all  fear 
that  the  conference  will  not  receive  it,  or  will  insist  on 
our  signing  without  it  or  not  signing  at  all. 

On  my  way  to  The  Hague  from  Scheveningen  I  met 
M.  Descamps,  the  eminent  professor  of  international  law 
in  the  University  of  Louvain,  and  the  leading  delegate 
in  the  conference  as  regards  hitricate  legal  questions 
connected  with  the  arbitration  plan.  He  thought  that 
our  best  way  out  of  the  difficulty  was  absolutely  to  in- 
sist on  a  clause  limiting  the  devoir  imposed  by  Art.  27, 
and  to  force  it  to  a  vote.  He  declared  that,  in  spite  of 
the  French,  it  would  certamly  be  carried.  This  I  doubt. 
M.  Descamps  knows,  perhaps,  more  of  international  law 
than  of  the  temper  of  his  associates. 

In  the  afternoon  to  the  "'  House  in  tlie  Wood,"  where 
the  "  Final  Act "  was  read.  This  is  a  statement  of 
what  has  been  done,  summed  up  in  the  form  of  tlu-ee 
conventions,  with  sundry  declarations,  voeux,  etc.  We 
had  taken  pams  to  see  a  number  of  the  leading  delegates, 
and  all,  in  their  anxiety  to  save  the  main  features  of  the 
arbitration  plan,  agreed  that  they  would  not  oppose  our 
declaration.  It  was  therefore  placed  in  the  hands  of 
Raffalovitch,  the  Russian  secretary,  who  stood  close  be- 
side the  president,  and  as  soon  as  the  "  Final  Act "  had 
been  recited  he  read  this  declaration  of  ours.  This  was 
then  brought  before  the  conference  in  plenary  session  by 
M.  de  Staal,  and  the  conference  was  asked  whether  any 
one  had  any  objection,  or  anything  to  say  regarding  it. 
There  was  a  pause  of  about  a  minute,  which  seemed  to 


108  THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

me  about  an  hour.  Not  a  Avord  was  said,  —  in  fact,  there- 
was  dead  silence,  —  and  so  our  declaration  embodying  a 
reservation  in  favor  of  the  Monroe  doctrine  was  duly 
recorded  and  became  part  of  the  proceedings. 

Rarely  in  my  life  have  I  had  such  a  feeling  of  deep 
relief ;  for,  during  some  days  past,  it  has  looked  as  if 
the  arbitration  project,  so  far  as  the  United  States  is 
concerned,  would  be  wrecked  on  that  wretched  little 
Art.   27. 

I  had  before  me  notes  of  a  speech  carefully  prepared, 
stating  our  reasons  and  replying  to  objections,  to  be  used 
in  case  we  were  attacked,  but  it  was  not  needed.  In  the 
evening  I  was  asked  by  Mr.  Lavino,  the  correspondent 
of  the  London  Time-%  to  put  the  gist  of  it  into  an  "  in- 
terview "  for  the  great  ncAvspaper  which  he  serves,  and  to 
this  I  consented ;  for,  during  the  proceedings  this  after- 
noon in  the  conference.  Sir  Julian  I^auncefote  showed 
great  uneasiness.  He  was  very  anxious  that  we  should 
withdraw  the  declaration  altogether,  and  said,  ''  It  will 
be  charged  against  you  that  you  propose  to  evade  your 
duties  while  using  the  treaty  to  promote  your  interests"; 
but  I  held  firm  and  pressed  the  matter,  with  the  result 
above  stated.  I  feared  that  he  would  object  in  open  con- 
ference ;  but  his  lo3^alty  to  arbitration  evidently  deterred 
him.  However,  he  returned  to  the  charge  privately,  and 
I  then  promised  to  make  a  public  statement  of  our  rea- 
sons for  the  declaration,  and  this  seemed  to  ease  his 
mind.  The  result  was  a  recasting  of  my  proposed  speech, 
and  this  Mr.  Lavino  tlu'cw  into  the  form  of  a  long  tele- 
oram  to  the  Tunes. 


THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFEREXCE  109 

July  26. 

At  ten  to  a  meeting  of  our  American  delegation,  when 
another  bombshell  was  thrown  among  us  —  nothing  less 
than  the  question  whether  the  Pope  is  to  be  allowed  to 
become  one  of  the  signatory  powers ;  and  this  question 
has  now  taken  a  very  acute  form.  Italy  is,  of  course, 
utterly  opposed  to  it,  and  Great  Britain  will  not  sign  if 
any  besides  those  agreed  upon  by  the  signatory  powers 
are  allowed  to  come  in  hereafter,  her  motive  being,  no 
doubt,  to  avoid  trouble  in  regard  to  the  Transvaal. 

Mr.  Low  stated  that  in  the  great  committee  the  pre- 
vailmg  opinion  seemed  to  be  that  the  signatory  powers 
had  made  a  sort  of  partnershi[),  and  that  no  new  part- 
ners could  be  added  without  the  consent  of  all.  This  is 
the  natural  ground,  and  entu-ely  tenable. 

I  would  have  been  glad  to  add  the  additional  require- 
ment that  no  power  should  be  admitted  which  would 
not  make  arbitration  reciprocal — that  is,  no  power  which, 
while  aiding  to  arbitrate  for  others,  would  not  accept  ar- 
bitration between  itself  and  another  power.  This  would, 
of  course,  exclude  the  Vatican ;  for,  while  it  desires  to 
judge  others,  it  will  allow  no  interests  of  its  own,  not 
even  the  most  worldly  and  trivial,  to  be  submitted  to 
any  earthly  tribunal. 

The  question  now  came  up  in  our  American  delegation 
as  to  signing  the  three  conventions  in  the  Acte  Final  — 
namely,  those  relating  to  arbitration,  to  the  extension  of 
the  Geneva  rules,  and  to  the  laws  and  customs  of  war. 
We  voted  to  sign  tlie  first,  to  send  the  second  to  Wash- 
ington without  recommendation,  and  to  send  the  third 
with  a  recommendation  that  it  be  there  signed.  The 
reason  for  sending  the  second  to  Washington  without 


110  THE   FUIST   HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

recommendation  is  that  C^aptain  INIahan  feels  that,  in  its 
present  condition,  it  may  bring  on  worse  evils  than  it 
prevents.  He  especially  and,  I  think,  jnstly  objects  to 
allowing  nentral  hospital  ships  to  take  on  board  the 
wonnded  and  shipwrecked  in  a  naval  action,  with  power 
to  throw  around  them  the  safeguards  of  neutrality  and 
carry  them  off  to  a  neutral  port  whence  they  can  again 
regain  their  own  homes  and  resume  their  status  as  com- 
batants. 

The  reason  for  submitting  the  tliird  to  Washington, 
with  a  recommendation  to  sign  it  there,  is  that  consider- 
able work  will  be  required  in  conforming  our  laws  of 
war  to  the  standard  proposed  by  the  conference,  and  that 
it  is  best  that  the  Washington  authorities  look  it  over 
carefully. 

I  was  very  anxious  to  sign  all  tlu'ee  conventions,  but 
the  first  is  tlie  great  one,  and  I  yielded  my  Aiews  on  the 
last  two. 

The  powers  are  to  have  until  tiie  olst  of  Decembi'r,  if 
they  wish  it,  before  signing. 

July  27. 

Early  in  the  morning  to  a  meeting  of  our  American 
delegation,  Mr.  van  Ivarnebeek  being  present.  We  agreed 
to  sign  the  arbitration  convention,  attaching  to  our  signa- 
tures a  reservation  embodying  our  declaration  of  July  25 
regarding  tlie  maintenance  of  our  American  policy  — 
the  Monroe  doctrine.  A  telegram  was  received  from  the 
State  Department  approving  ol'  this  lU'claration. 

The  imbroglio  regarding  tlie  forcing  of  the  Pope  into 
I  he  midst  of  the  signatory  powers  (ionthiues.  The  ul- 
tramontaiu'S  ai-e  pushing  on  varions  (hslegates,  especially 


THE  FIRST   HAGUE  COXFEREXCE  111 

sundry  Avistrians  and  Belgians,  wlio  depend  on  clerical 
support  for  tlieir  political  existence,  and,  in  some 
cases,  for  their  daily  bread ;  and  the  result  is  that  M. 
Descamps,  one  of  the  most  eminent  international  lawyers 
in  Europe,  who  has  rendered  great  services  during  the 
conference,  but  who  holds  a  professorship  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Louvain,  and  can  hold  it  not  one  moment  longer 
than  the  Jesuits  allo^^•  him,  is  making  a  great  display  of 
feeling  on  the  subject.  Italy,  of  course,  continues  to  take 
the  strongest  ground  against  the  proposal  to  admit  his 
Holiness  as  an  Italian  sovereign. 

Our  position  is,  as  was  well  stated  in  the  great  com- 
mittee by  Mr.  Low,  that  the  contracting  parties  must  all 
consent  before  a  new  party  can  come  in ;  and  tliis  under 
one  of  the  simplest  principles  of  law.  We  ought  also 
to  add  that  any  power  thus  admitted  shall  not  only  con- 
sent to  arbitrate  on  others,  but  to  be  arbitrated  upon. 
This,  of  course,  the  Vatican  monsignori  will  never  do. 
They  would  see  all  Europe  deluged  in  blood  before  they 
would  submit  the  pettiest  question  Ijetween  the  kingdom 
of  Italy  and  themselves  to  arbitration  by  lay  powers.  All 
other  things  are  held  by  them  utterly  subordinate  to  the 
restoration  of  the  Pope's  temporal  power,  though  they 
must  know  that  if  it  were  restored  to  him  to-morrow 
he  could  not  hold  it.  He  would  be  overthrown  by  a  revo- 
lution within  a  month,  even  with  all  the  troops  which 
France  or  Austria  could  send  to  support  him ;  and  then 
we  should  have  the  old  miserable  state  of  things  again 
in  Italy,  with  Tjloodshed,  oppression  and  exactions  such 
as  took  place  throughout  the  first  half  of  this  century, 
and,  indeed,  while  I  Mas  in  Italy,  under  the  old  papal 
authoritv,  in  1856. 


1V2  THE  FIRST   HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

111  tlie  aftenioon  to  the  "  House  in  the  Wood"  to  go 
over  documents  preliminary  to  signmg  the  "'  Final  Act." 

In  the  afternoon  in  plenary  session  of  the  conference, 
hearing  the  final  reports  as  to  forms  of  signing,  etc. 

To-day  appears  in  the  London  Times  the  interview 
■which  its  correspondent  had  with  me  j^esterday.  It  de- 
velops the  reasons  for  our  declaration,  and  seems  to  give 
general  satisfaction.  Sir  Julian  Pauncefote  told  Holls 
that  he  liked  it  much. 

The  committee  on  forms  of  the  "  Fmal  Act,"  etc.,  has  at 
last,  under  pressure  of  all  sorts,  agreed  that  the  question 
of  admitting  nonsignatory  powers  shall  be  decided  by 
the  signatory  powers,  hereafter,  through  the  ordinary 
medium  of  diplomatic  correspondence.  Tliis  is  unfor- 
tunate for  some  of  the  South  American  republics,  but  it 
\\'ill  |)robal)ly  in  some  way  inure  to  the  benefit  of  the 
^^atican  monsignori. 

Juhj  29. 

The  last  and  culminating  day  of  the  conference. 

Ill  the;  morning  the  entire  body  gathered  in  the  great 
hall  of  the  "  House  in  the  Wood,"  and  each  delegation 
was  summoned  thence  to  sign  the  protocol,  conventions 
and  declarations.  Tliese  were  laid  out  on  a  long  table  in 
the  dining  room  of  the  palace,  which  is  adorned  with 
very  remarkable  paintings  of  mythological  subjects  imi- 
tating bas-reliefs. 

All  these  documents  had  the  places  for  each  signature 
prepared  l)eforehand,  and  our  seals,  in  wax,  already 
placed   upon  the  pages  adjoining   the  place  where  each 


THE  FIRST   HAGUE  CONFERENCE  113 

signature  was  to  be.  At  the  request  of  the  Foreign 
Office  authorities  for  my  seal,  I  had  sent  a  day  or  two 
beforehand  the  seal  ring  which  Goldwin  Smith  gave  me 
at  the  founding  of  Cornell  University.  It  is  an  ancient 
carnelian  mtaglio  which  he  obtained  in  Rome,  and  bears 
upon  its  face,  exquisitely  engraved,  a  Wmged  Victory. 
This  seal  I  used  during  my  entire  connection  with  Cornell 
University,  and  also  as  a  member  of  the  Electoral  Col- 
lege of  the  State  of  New  York  at  General  Grant's  second 
election,  when,  at  the  request  of  the  president  of  that 
body.  Governor  Woodford,  it  was  used  in  sealmg  certifi- 
cates of  the  election,  which  were  sent,  according  to  law, 
to  certain  high  officials  of  our  government. 

I  affixed  my  signature  to  the  arbitration  convention, 
writing  in,  as  agreed,  the  proviso  that  our  signatures 
were  subject  to  the  Monroe  doctrine  declaration  made 
in  open  session  of  the  conference  on  July  25.  The  other 
members  of  the  American  delegation  then  signed  in 
proper  order.  But  the  two  other  conventions  we  left 
unsigned.  It  was  with  deep  regret  that  I  turned  away 
from  these  ;  l)ut  the  majority  of  the  delegation  had  de- 
creed it,  and  it  was  difficult  to  see  what  other  course  we 
could  pursue.  I  trust  that  the  Washington  authorities 
will  rectify  the  matter  by  signing  them  both. 

We  also  affixed  our  signatures  to  the  first  of  the 
"  declarations." 

At  three  p.m.  came  the  formal  closing  of  the  conference. 
]\I.  de  Staal  made  an  excellent  speech,  as  did  Mr.  van 
Karnebeek  and'  M.  de  Beaufort,  the  Netherlands  min- 
ister of  foreign  affairs.  To  these  Count  Miinster,  the 
presiding  delegate  from  Germany,  replied  in  French,  and 
apparently  extemporaneously.    It  must  have  been  pain 


114  THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

and  grief  to  him,  for  he  was  obhged  to  speak  respectfully, 
in  the  first  place,  of  the  conference,  which  for  some  weeks 
he  had  affected  to  despise  ;  and,  secondl_y,  of  arbitration 
and  the  other  measures  proposed,  which,  at  least  dur- 
ing all  the  first  part  of  the  conference,  he  had  denounced 
as  a  trick  and  a  humbug ;  and,  finally,  he  had  to  speak 
respectfully  of  M.  de  Staal,  to  whom  he  has  steadily 
shown  decided  dislike.  He  did  the  whole  quite  well,  all 
things  considered ;  but  showed  his  feelings  clearly,  as 
regarded  M.  de  Staal,  by  adding  to  praise  of  him  greater 
praise  for  Mr.  van  Karnebeek,  who  has  been  the  main 
managing  man  in  the  conference  in  behalf  of  the  Nether- 
lands Government. 

Then  to  the  hotel  and  began  work  on  the  draft  of  a 
report,  regarding  the  whole  work  of  the  conference,  to 
the  State  Department.  I  was  especially  embarrassed  by 
the  fact  that  tlie  wording  of  it  must  be  suited  to  tlie 
scruples  of  my  colleague,  Captain  Mahan.  He  is  a  man 
of  the  highest  character  and  of  great  ability,  whom  I 
respect  and  greatly  like ;  but,  as  an  old  naval  officer, 
wedded  to  the  views  generally  entertained  by  older  mem- 
bers of  the  naval  and  military  service,  he  has  had  very 
little,  if  any,  sympathy  with  the  main  purposes  of  the  con- 
ference, and  has  not  hesitated  to  declare  his  disbelief  in 
some  of  the  measures  whicli  we  were  especially  instructed 
to  press.  In  his  books  he  is  on  record  against  the  im- 
munity of  private  property  at  sea,  and  in  drawing  n[) 
our  memorial  to  the  conference  regarding  this  latter 
matter,  in  making  my  speecli  with  reference  to  it  in  the 
conference,  and  in  [)reparing  our  report  to  the  State 
Department,  1  have  been  (Mubarrassed  by  this  fact. 
It  was  important  to  have  unanimity,  and  it  could  not  be 


THE  FIRST  HAGUE  COXFERENCE  115 

had,  so  far  as  he  was  concerned,  without  toning  down 
the  whole  thing,  and,  indeed,  leaving  out  much  that  in 
my  judgment  the  documents  emanating  from  us  on  the 
subject  ought  to  contain.  So  now,  in  regard  to  arbitra- 
tion, as  well  as  the  other  measures  finally  adopted,  liis 
feelings  must  be  considered.  Still,  his  views  have  been 
an  excellent  tonic ;  they  have  effectively  prevented  any 
lapse  into  sentimentality.  When  he  speaks  the  millen- 
nium fades  and  this  stern,  severe,  actual  world  appears. 
I  worked  until  late  at  night,  and  then  went  to  Scheven- 
ingen  almost  in  despair. 

July  30. 

Returned  to  The  Hague  early  in  the  morning,  and 
went  on  again  with  the  report,  working  steadily  through 
the  day  upon  it.  For  the  first  time  in  my  life  I  have 
thus  made  Sunday  a  day  of  work.  Although  I  have  no 
conscientious  scruples  on  the  subject,  it  was  bred  into 
me  in  my  ehildhoo<l  and  boyhood  that  Sunday  should  be 
kept  free  from  all  manner  of  work  ;  and  so  tlioroughly 
was  this  rule  inculcated  that  I  have  borne  it  in  mind 
ever  since,  often  resisting  very  pressing  temptation  to 
depart  from  it. 

But  to-day  there  was  no  alternative,  and  the  whole 
time  until  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  was  given  to 
getting  ni}^  draft  ready. 

At  five  P.3I.  the  American  delegation  came  together, 
and,  to  my  surprise,  received  my  report  with  every  ap- 
pearance of  satisfaction.  Mr.  Low  indicated  some  places 
which,  in  his  opinion,  needed  modification ;  and  to  this 
]  heartily  agreed,  for  they  were  generally  places  where 
I  was  myself  in  doubt. 


IK)  THE   FIRST   HAGUE  COXFEIJENCE 

My  draft  having  thus  l)een  presented,  I  turned  it 
over  to  Mr.  Low,  who  agreed  to  bring  it  to-morrow 
morning  with  such  modifications,  omissions  and  addi- 
tions as  seemed  best  to  him.  The  old  proverb,  "  'T  is 
always  darkest  just  before  daylight,''  seems  exemplified 
in  the  affairs  of  to-day,  since  the  kind  reception  given 
to  my  draft  of  the  report,  and  the  satisfaction  expressed 
regarding  it,  form  a  most  happy  and  unexpected  sequel 
to  my  wretched  distrust  regarding  the  whole  matter 
last  night. 

'Jid^/  SI. 

The  American  delegation  met  at  eleven  in  the  morn- 
ing and  discussed  my  draft.  Mr.  Low's  modifications  and 
additions  were  not  many  and  were  mainly  good.  But  he 
omitted  some  things  which  I  would  have  preferred  to 
retain :  these  being  in  the  nature  of  a  plea  in  behalf  of 
arbitration,  or,  rather,  an  exhibition  of  the  advantages 
which  have  been  secured  for  it  by  the  conference  ;  but, 
between  his  doubts  and  Captain  ^Lihan's  opposition,  I 
did  not  care  to  contest  tlie  matter,  and  several  pages 
were  left  out. 

At  six  in  the  afternoon  came  the  last  meeting  of  our 
delegation.  The  reports,  duly  engrosscnl, — namely,  the 
special  reports,  signed  by  Captain  JNLdian  and  Captain 
Crozier,  from  the  first  and  second  (committees  of  the  con- 
ference ;  the  special  report  made  by  myself,  i\L-.  l^ow 
and  Dr.  Holls  as  members  of  tlic  tliird  committee ;  and 
tlie  general  report  covering  our  wliolc  work,  drawn  al- 
most entirely  by  me,  but  signed  by  all  the  mem])ers  of 
the  commission, — were  presented,  re-read  and  signed, 
after  which  the  delegation  adjourned,  sine  die. 


THE    FIRST   IIA(;L'E  COXFEIIENCE  117 

Aw/uHt  1. 

After  some  little  preliminary  work  on  matters  con- 
nected with  the  winding  up  of  our  commission,  went  with 
my  private  secretary,  Mr.  Vickery,  to  Amsterdam,  visit- 
ing the  old  church,  the  palace,  the  Zoological  Gardens, 
etc.  Thence  to  Gouda  and  saw  the  stamed-glass  windows 
in  tli,e  old  church  there,  which  1  have  so  long  desired  to 
study. 

Am/UHt  3. 

At  8.30  left  The  Hague  and  went  by  rail,  via  Cologne 
and  Ehrenl)reitstein,  to  Homburg,  arriving  in  the  evening. 

August  o. 

This  morning  resumed  my  duties  as  ambassador  at 
Berlin. 

There  was  one  proceeding  at  the  final  meeting  of  the 
conference  which  I  have  omitted,  but  which  really  ought 
to  find  a  place  in  this  diary.  Just  before  the  final  speeches, 
to  the  amazement  of  all  and  almost  to  the  stupefaction  of 
many,  the  president,  M.  de  Staal,  handed  to  the  secretary, 
without  comment,  a  paper  which  the  latter  began  to  read. 
It  turned  out  to  be  a  correspondence  which  had  taken 
place,  just  before  the  conference,  between  the  Queen  of 
the  Netherlands  and  the  Pope. 

The  Queen's  letter  —  written,  of  course,  by  her  min- 
isters, in  the  desire  to  placate  the  Catholic  party,  which 
holds  the  balance  of  power  in  the  Netherlands  —  dwelt 
most  respectfully  on  the  high  functions  of  his  Holiness, 
etc.,  etc.,  indicating,  if  not  saying,  that  it  was  not  the 
fault  of  her  government  that  he  was  not  invited  to  join 
in  the  conference. 


118  THE  FIRST  HAGUi:  CONFERENCE 

The  answer  from  the  Pope  was  a  masterpiece  of  Vati- 
can skill.  In  it  he  referred  to  wliat  he  claimed  was  his 
natural  position  as  a  peacemaker  on  earth,  dwelling 
strongly  on  this  point. 

The  reading  of  these  papers  was  received  in  silence, 
and  not  a  word  was  publicly  said  afterwards  regarding 
them,  though  in  various  quarters  there  was  very  deep 
feelincr.  It  was  felt  that  the  Dutch  Government  had 
taken  this  means  of  forestallmg  local  Dutch  opposition, 
and  that  it  was  a  purely  local  matter  of  political  parti- 
sanship that  ought  never  to  have  been  intruded  upon  a 
conference  of  the  whole  world. 

I  had  no  feelmg  of  this  sort,  for  it  seemed  to  me  well 
enough  that  the  facts  should  be  presented  ;  but  a  leading 
representative  of  one  of  the  great  Catholic  powers,  who 
drove  home  with  us,  was  of  a  different  mind.  This  eminent 
diplomatist  from  one  of  the  strongest  Catholic  countries, 
and  himself  a  Catholic,  spoke  in  substance  as  follows : 
"  The  Vatican  has  always  been,  and  is  to-da}-,  a  storm 
center.  The  Po|)e  and  liis  advisers  have  never  hesitated 
to  urge  on  war,  no  matter  how  bloody,  wlieii  the  slight- 
est of  their  ordinary  worldly  purposes  could  be  served  by 
it.  The  great  religious  wars  of  Europe  were  entirely  stirred 
up  and  egged  on  by  them  ;  and,  as  everybody  knows,  the 
Pope  did  everything  to  prevent  the  signing  of  the  treaty 
of  Miinster,  which  put  an  end  to  the  dreadful  Thirty 
Years'  War,  even  going  so  far  as  to  declare  the  oaths 
taken  l)y  the  })lenipotentiaries  at  that  congress  of  no  effect. 

"  All  through  the  Middle  Ages  and  at  the  Renaissance 
period  the  Popes  ke[)t  Italy  in  turmoil  and  bloodslu-d  for 
their  own  family  and  territorial  advantages,  and  they 
kept  all  Europe  in  turmoil,  for  two  centuries  after  the 


THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE  119 

Reformation,  —  in  fact,  just  as  long  as  they  could,  —  in 
the  wars  of  religion.  They  did  everything  they  could 
to  stir  up  the  war  between  Austria  and  Prussia  in  1866, 
thinking  that  Austria,  a  Catholic  power,  was  sure  to  win  ; 
and  then  everything  possible  to  stir  up  the  war  of  France 
against  Prussia  in  1870  in  order  to  accomplish  the  same 
purpose  of  checking  German  Protestantism ;  and  now 
they  are  doing  all  they  can  to  arouse  hatred,  even  to 
deluge  Italy  in  blood,  in  the  vain  attempt  to  recover  the 
temporal  power,  though  they  must  know  that  they  could 
not  hold  it  for  any  length  of  time  even  if  they  should 
obtam  it. 

"  They  pretend  to  be  anxious  to  '  save  souls,'  and  es- 
pecially to  love  Poland  and  Ireland  ;  but  they  have  for 
years  used  those  countries  as  mere  pawns  in  their  game 
with  Russia  and  Great  Britain,  and  would  sell  every 
Catholic  soul  they  contain  to  the  Greek  and  English 
churches  if  they  could  tliereb}'  secure  the  active  aid  of 
those  two  governments  against  Italy.  The}' have  obliged 
the  Italian  youth  to  clioose  l)etween  patriotism  and  Chris- 
tianity, and  the  result  is  that  the  best  of  these  have 
become  atheists.  Their  whole  policy  is  based  on  stir- 
ring up  hatred  and  promoting  conflicts  from  which  they 
hope  to  draw  worldly  advantage. 

"  In  view  of  all  this,  one  stands  amazed  at  the  cool 
statements  of  the  Vatican  letter." 

These  were  the  words  of  an  eminent  Roman  Catholic 
representative  of  a  Roman  Catholic  power,  and  to  them 
I  have  nothing  to  add. 

In  looking  back  calmly  over  the  proceedings  of  the 
conference,  I  feel  absolutely  convinced  that  it  has 
accomplished  a  great  work  for  the  world. 


120  THE  FIRST  IIAGUP:  CONFERENCE 

The  mere  assembling  of  such  a  body  for  such  a  pur- 
pose was  a  distinct  gain ;  but  vastly  more  important  is 
the  positive  outcome  of  its  labors. 

First  of  these  is  the  plan  of  arbitration.  It  provides 
a  court  definitely  constituted  ;  a  place  of  meeting  easily 
accessible  ;  a  council  for  summoning  it  always  in  session  ; 
guarantees  for  perfect  independence ;  and  a  suitable 
procedure. 

Closely  connected  with  this  is  the  provision  for  "  in- 
ternational connnissions  of  inquiry,"  which  cannot  fail 
to  do  nuu'li  in  clearing  up  issues  likely  to  lead  to  war 
between  nations.  Thus  we  may  hope,  when  there  is 
danger  of  war,  for  something  better  than  that  which 
the  world  has  hitherto  heard  —  the  clamor  of  interested 
parties  and  the  shrieks  of  sensation  newspapers.  The 
natural  result  will  be,  as  in  the  Venezuelan  difficulty 
between  the  United  States  and  (Ireat  Britain,  that  when 
a  commission  of  this  sort  has  been  set  at  work  to  ascer- 
tain the  facts,  the  howling  of  partisans  and  screammg 
of  sensation  mongers  will  cease,  and  tlie  finding  of  the 
connuission  be  calmly  awaited. 

So,  too,  the  plans  adopted  for  mediation  can  hardly 
fail  to  aid  in  keeping  oft"  war.  The  plans  for  ''  special 
mediation"'  and  ''seconding  powers,"  which  emanated 
entii'ely  from  the  American  delegation,  and  whicli  were 
adopted  unanimously  by  the  great  committee  and  by  the 
conference,  seem  likely  to  prove  in  some  cases  an  effective 
means  of  preventing  hostilities,  and  even  of  arresting 
them  after  they  have  begun.  Had  it  l)een  in  o[)eration 
during  our  recent  war  with  Spain,  it  would  pi'obably 
have  closed  it  iimuediately  after  the  loss  of  Cervera's  fleet, 
and  would  have  saved  many  lives  and  much  treasure. 


THE  FIRST  HAGUE  CONFERENCE  121 

Secondly,  the  extension  of  the  Geneva  rules,  hitherto 
adopted  for  war  on  land,  to  war  also  on  the  sea  is  a 
distinct  gain  in  the  cause  of  mercy. 

Thirdly,  the  amelioration  and  more  careful  definition 
of  the  laws  of  war  must  aid  powerfully  in  that  evolution 
of  mercy  and  right  reason  which  has  been  going  on  for 
hundreds  of  years,  and  especially  since  the  great  work 
of  Grotius. 

In  addition  to  these  gains  may  well  be  mentioned  the 
declarations,  expressions  of  opinion  and  utterance  of 
wishes  for  continued  study  and  persevering  effort  to 
make  the  instrumentalities  of  war  less  cruel  and  de- 
structive. 

It  has  been  said  not  infrequently  that  the  conference 
missed  a  great  opportunity  when  it  made  the  resort  to 
arbitration  voluntary  and  not  obligatory.  Such  an  ob- 
jection can  come  only  from  those  who  have  never  duly 
considered  the  problem  concerned.  Oljligatory  arbitra- 
tion between  states  is  indeed  possible  in  various  petty 
matters,  but  in  many  great  matters  absolutely  impossible. 
While  a  few  nations  were  willing  to  accept  it  in  regard 
to  these  minor  matters,  —  as,  for  example,  postal  or 
monetary  difficulties  and  the  like,  —  not  a  single  power 
was  willing  to  bind  itself  by  a  hard-and-fast  rule  to  sub- 
mit all  questions  to  it  —  and  least  of  all  the  United  States. 

The  reason  is  very  simple :  to  do  so  would  be  to  in- 
crease the  chances  of  war  and  to  enlarge  standing  armies 
throughout  the  world.  Obligatory  arbitration  on  all 
questions  would  enable  any  power,  at  any  moment,  to 
bring  before  the  tribunal  any  other  power  against  which 
it  has,  or  thinks  it  has,  a  grievance.  Greece  might  thus 
summon  Turkev  ;  France  might  summon  Germanv  ;  the 


122  THE   FIRST   HAGUE  CONFERENCE 

Papacy,  Italy ;  England,  Russia ;  China,  Japan  ;  Spain, 
the  United  States,  regarding  matters  in  which  the  deepest 
of  human  feelings  —  questions  of  religion,  questions  of 
race,  questions  even  of  national  existence  —  are  concerned. 
To  enforce  the  decisions  of  a  tribunal  in  such  cases  would 
require  armies  compared  to  which  those  of  the  present 
day  are  a  mere  bagatelle,  and  plunge  the  world  into  a  sea 
of  troubles  compared  to  which  those  now  existing  are  as 
nothing.  What  has  been  done  is  to  provide  a  way,  always 
ready  and  easily  accessible,  by  which  nations  can  settle 
most  of  their  difficulties  with  each  other.  Hitherto,  secur- 
ing a  court  of  arbitration  has  involved  first  the  education 
of  public  opinion  in  two  nations  ;  next,  the  action  of  two 
national  legislatures  ;  then  the  making  of  a  treaty  ;  then 
the  careful  selection  of  judges  on  both  sides  ;  then  delays 
by  the  jurists  thus  chosen  in  disposing  of  engagements 
and  duties  to  which  they  are  already  pledged  —  all  these 
matters  requiring  much  labor  and  long  time  ;  and  this 
just  when  speedy  action  is  most  necessary  to  arrest  the 
development  of  international  anger.  Under  the  system 
of  arbitration  now  presented,  the  court  can  be  brought 
into  session  at  short  notice  —  easily,  as  regards  most  na- 
tions, within  a  few  weeks  at  the  farthest.  When  to  these 
advantages  are  added  the  provisions  for  delaying  war 
and  for  improving  the  laws  of  war,  the  calm  judgment  of 
mankind  will,  I  fully  believe,  decide  that  the  conference 
lias  done  a  work  of  value  to  the  world. 

There  is  also  another  gam  —  hicidental,  but  of  real  and 
l)ermanent  value  ;  and  this  is  the  inevitable  development 
of  the  Law  of  Nations  l)y  the  decisions  of  such  a  court 
of  arl)itrati()n  composed  of  tlie  most  eminent  jurists  from 
all   countries.    Tims  far   it   has   been   evolved  from   the 


THE   FFPvST   HAaUE  CONFERENCE  128 

writings  of  scholars  often  conflicting,  from  the  decisions 
of  national  courts  biased  by  local  patriotism,  from  the 
practices  of  various  powers,  on  land  and  sea,  more  in 
obedience  to  their  interests  than  to  then'  sense  of  justice  ; 
but  now  we  may  hope  for  the  growth  of  a  great  body 
of  international  law  under  the  best  conditions  possible, 
and  ever  more  and  more  in  obedience  to  the  great  im- 
pulse given  by  Grotius  in  the  direction  of  right  reason 
and  mere}'. 


THE  MATERIAL  IN   THIS  BOOK  COXSISTS  OF 
FIVE  CHAPTERS  FROM 

THE  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF 
ANDREW  D.  WHITE 

Illustrated  with  Jive  photogravure  portraits  of  the  author 

This  autobiography  is  a  living,  inspiring  record,  not  alone  of  a  life 
which  has  been  a  powerful  factor  for  good  in  American  growth  and 
progress,  but  of  the  people  and  events  which  have  shaped  American 
history  and  thought  in  the  last  half  century.  Dr.  White  has  led  a 
life  filled  to  overflowing  with  active  usefulness  in  many  causes  — 
education,  politics,  statecraft,  diplomacy  and  literature. 

The  book  is  interestingly  divided  into  eight  parts,  as  follows : 

PART  I.  ENVIRONMENT  AND  EDUCATION 

PART  II.  POLITICAL  LIFE 

PART  III.  AS  UNIVERSITY  PROFESSOR 

PART  IV.  AS  UNIVERSITY  PRESIDENT 

PART  V.  IN  THE  DIPLOiMATIC  SERVICE 

PART  VI.  SUNDRY  JOURNEYS  AND  EXPERIENCES 

PART  VII.  MISCELLANEOUS  RECOLLECTIONS 

PART  VIII.  RELIGIOUS  DEVELOPMENT 


A  work  of  great  historical  and  liter-  Among  the  old,  the  work  will  revive 

ary   interest    and   eharni. —  Brnnlcli/n  memories  of  events  that  thrilled  the 

Kngle.  world,  and  the  newer  generation  will 

find  in  it  abundant  material   for  the 

Ihe  most  readable,  as  well  as   the  enrichmentof theirminds.— /'i«.s6((/(//( 

most  valuable,  work  of  its  kind  whieh  Chronicle  Telegraph. 
has    appeared    for    years.    The    more 

closely  one  reads  it,  the  greater  will  It  will  live  as  a  record  not  of  a  single 

be  his  respect  for  the  great  services  of  life,  but  of  a  great  era  of  American 

the  author  to  American  education,  as  history.  —  .Sy/racxse  Post-Sfandnrd . 

«ell  as  admiration  for  his  breadth  of  »'               i            •        ^    i          •     ^        . 

mind  and  his  ripe  scholarship  in  many  .^Z'  one  who  aspires  to  keep  ui  touch 

fields  of  knowledge.  -  Sun   FrancUro  ^V"*^  '*'«  broader  aspects  and  applica- 

Chronicle  tions  of   world  politics  can  afford    to 

deny  himself  the  pleasure  of  its  peru- 

An   unexampled  picture  of  human  >^iil.- /,r,/„/o«  Pall  Mall  Gazette. 

activity  during   the   last   half  of   the  No  more  interesting  book  has  been 

nineteenth    century.  —  Boston     Tran-  published  in  many  decades. —  Current 

srript.  JAtcrutnre. 


Royal  octavo,  2  volumes  of  000  pages  each,  containing  sixty-one  chapters, 
with  full  index.   Price,  %~.oO  net,  carriage  extra. 

NEW  YORK :  THE  CENTURY  COMPANY 
125 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  jVTLOS  ANGELES 

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